Flame In The Darkness
by StephAnneDixon
Summary: "I ran after that car all night man," Daryl finally said, looking at him directly in the eye for the first time sense they started this conversation. "Ran all night 'till I couldn't run no more." ...Takes place immediately following the season 4 finale.
1. Train Car A

The light coming through the door filled the train car immediately and pierced her eyes, blinding her momentarily. It had been days sense any light besides the small fragments through cracks in the train car door and walls shined through and she was able to see fully. Her eyes were so adjusted to the darkness that the change in light intensity made it difficult to see.

She was unable to make out much, but as far as she could tell there were a few people entering the train car. _This is it _she thought. _Whatever this is... whatever they were... we were all about to find out._ Her grip on Glenn's hand tightened. She couldn't look down to verify it and wasn't exactly sure, but she was almost certain that her knuckles were completely white. She was terrified. Nothing about the signs they had seen and the feelings they had about Terminus correlated in any way with the way she felt now. The words they used were survive, community, sanctuary... but the longer they were trapped in this train car, the more she felt as if danger was imminent.

_How could we have been so stupid_, Maggie thought. _Especially after all the things that have been done to us and all the things we've gone through and lost sense the turn._

Her anxiety and apprehension got stronger the longer it took for the figures to walk into the car. Bracing herself for the worst, to watch her friends die in front of her, to be separated from Glenn yet again. She didn't know what was much worse than that.

Three. no, four maybe? The people filtered into the car, one shorter than all the rest she had concluded, based on the silhouettes she could make out height difference.

Was it a child? _oh no._ Maggie said inwardly. _not a child. not in this situation. _Maggie wasn't even sure what the situation was exactly. But the lump in her throat, and the fact that they were packed into a god damn train car told her it wasn't good.

The blood in her veins turned cold, her first thought was that it was Beth. _Please god, don't let it be Beth. Not here. _Beth was small, but definitely taller that the figure she was scrutinizing. Beth had grown up so much sense the turn. She had long legs, like her mother Annette, her baby face although still innocent had grown to bare beautiful feminine cheekbones, and she was slowly turning into a woman before her very eyes. Until the prison fell, that is.

The train car door creaked shut behind them, it took a few moments, she was petrified. Mostly because if she couldn't see, she would be utterly defenseless. Let alone the fact that she had no weapon. but slowly as her eyes adjusted back to the darkness, she almost couldn't believe what she was seeing.

_Rick...Carl.._ A small twinge of happiness ran through her. Sasha, bob and herself were almost convinced that everyone else in the group was dead. They thought they were all that was left of their family they loved. The questions she had up until that point were partially answered in that moment, but the appearance of the two only arose more questions, rather than answers.

As her eyes continued to adjust, she tried her damnedest to focus on the two figures directly behind rick and Carl. She squinted, straining her eyes even more when a voice broke her focus

"Rick, man, is that you?" Glenn stepped forward as he spoke, causing the grip on Maggie's hand to loosen as she let him approach their friends. The four figures also stepped forward, directly into the line of light shining from the door closure, where the faces weren't just silhouettes or just familiar faces in the darkness. She could make out detail now.

First Rick, who had some gashes on his face that were clearly fresh, he looked exhausted and was drenched in sweat. Then Carl, who was bearing a deep cut on his right cheek which was encased in blood, swollen, red, and inflamed. She then laid eyes on Michonne, nothing short of a sight for sore eyes. She felt a lot safer when Michonne was around. She was a valuable group member, and she trusted her with everything she had. Michonne had several scratches on her face and some blood spatter on the top end of her windbreaker she was wearing, but nothing more than that. She was tough looking and on guard as usual. Maggie noticed when Michonne looked past her to Tara and Abraham and the rest of the group, she was immediately apprehensive.

"It's okay" Maggie piped in quickly. "they're our friends, they helped save us"

Her eyes were fixated on Michonne which is why the fourth voice startled her.

"They're our friends to then" _Daryl. _

Maggie knew the voice instantly. As she turned her attention to Daryl, it was clear that whatever they had just gone through, Daryl took it the worst. His right eye was swollen and purple, completely bruised around the area all the way up to his eyebrow. Cuts were on his face, and by the way he was standing she could tell he had hurt one of his legs, just by the way he made sure there was no weight on the other one as best as he could.

_So, who was even left?_ She thought, the people unaccounted for where were they?

Well, there was Tyresse and the two little girls Micah and Lizzie, Carol who she wasn't even sure if she had survived up to this point even remotely considering she wasn't even at the prison on the day the governor decided to make his fateful visitation.

Then, there was Beth, her sister. Part of her knew she would have made it with at least one of the four that had just appeared. But Beth was nowhere to be found. She was so consumed with finding Glenn after the separation and felt a huge pang of guilt wrack her body as the realization came to hand that she wasn't there. She felt guilty that she didn't search for Beth like she did Glenn. And technically, she didn't search for Beth at all. Maggie could feel her heart breaking, immediately imagining every horrifying scenario possible that could potentially tell the tale of Beth's final moments, if in fact she was dead.

* * *

_"You ain't never gonna see Maggie again!"_ His own voice memory rattled his eardrum violently as he laid his eyes on Maggie.

He had heard her voice, but resisted actually looking at her. He knew at some point in time he was going to have to tell Maggie about Beth. What had happened. But quite frankly, he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't even want to think about it. It made him feel like a piece of shit, that he couldn't help her- that he couldn't find her. He could imagine if Beth was here, she would sure as shit shoot him a 'I told you so' look before throwing herself at Maggie with relief. But the problem with that was, Beth wasn't there. Actually, he had no clue in the fucking world where she was at it was eating at him every day sense she had gone.

Voices filtered into his head, amplifying his hurt and his anger. The most significant one was that of Len, the douche bag of all douche bags belonging to the group he found himself with, the claimers.

_"I bet it's some bitch" Len trailed off, curiosity and snarkyness dripping off of his tongue "Got ya all messed up... Am I right?" chuckling darkly._

Maggie and the others watched Daryl as he stuck a finger in one of his ears and jerked it roughly. A seething anger all but pouring out of him all at once. They all watched him closely, seeing him physically annoyed and angered, mostly attributing it to the situation at hand.

"Rick" Maggie said, trying to get his attention. Rick looked up with one eyebrow raised, prompting her to continue with whatever it was she was about to say. "Beth" Daryl's eyes flicked to Maggie, but only for a brief moment before looking directly at the ground.

Her saying Beth's name was more of a question than a statement. "i-uh" Rick started running a hand across the stubble on his beard uneasily. He sucked a breath in as he tried to find the words to say, but honestly, he didn't know what he could say.

Rick turned himself to look at Daryl who was already looking at him with hooded eyes. The look exchanged between the two of them was enough to make Daryl understand what Rick was trying to say without him having to say a word. The group looked on with interest at the wordless conversation going on between the two of them, puzzled. Daryl ran a hand through his hair, exasperated.

"I-uhm" He said, rubbing his had vigorously on the back of his neck, avoiding all impending gazes, especially Maggie's.

_Now what, genius? _Daryl thought. _You can't just not saying anything now. _

"I was with 'er for a while" Daryl spoke up quietly.

Maggie's shoulders tensed slightly. "What do you mean 'for a while'?" she asked angrily. She wasn't necessarily angry with Daryl, she was just needing an explanation. One at least a little more descriptive than the cryptic five word sentence Daryl just provided. All eyes were on Daryl with the occasional glance to Maggie. Rick was the only one who knew about Beth, but the information he received was vague like most things Daryl would say about anything that he was asked about.

"I was with 'er after the prison.. we were left behind and we were survivin'" he looked up as he broke the sentence off to the tall and clearly devastated sister of Beth just a few feet from before continuing. "..and now shes gone"

"What do you mean _gone_?!" Maggie raised her voice and her temper quickly, practically jumping towards Daryl with force, stalking up to him almost as if she was going to clock him upside the head or tackle him.

Glenn reached and grabbed Maggie by the arm just as she started moving trying to jerk her back to her previous position. Meanwhile, Rick stepped between them, holding his hand out to Maggie signalling her to relax between yells and insults she was throwing at Daryl. The commotion between them was almost too much to comprehend as Glenn was raising his voice now yelling "MAGGIE!" Trying to get her attention and get her to calm down. Daryl's thoughts were clouded and he felt his ears begin to heat up.

"wait wait wait," Maggie began, almost laughing because she was so furious, "You mean to tell me she's just GONE? THAT'S IT?" Maggie was practically screaming. Eyes bulging out of her face, smoldering with anger, occasionally jerking her arm away from glens grasp only to be grabbed onto by Sasha as well.

"wait, you were with Beth?" Carl's voice came as a relief to Daryl, temporarily reliving him from the situation at hand. He was thankful for that considering he was standing there like a deer in headlights in front of everyone.

"Wha- Yeah. Yeah I was" Daryl managed to choke out. _Damn annoying girl getting me into trouble and she's not even fucking here!_ Daryl thought spitefully.

He felt his anger creeping to the breaking point as he tried to keep himself under control.

"Well, where is she? Is she dead? Did she get bit? Is she hurt? Where can we fin-"

"I don't know kid. Shut it for a minute alright!"

The questions were only making it worse. Not only did he have her sister to answer to, but now he had Carl, and clearly everyone else in the room was waiting on answers as well. He felt bad for snapping at Carl like that, but he was past the point of restraint now.

He was seconds away from snapping when Maggie broke out of their grasp and stalked closer, she bumped into rick by accident knocking him right into Daryl in the process, which was the match in the gas tank for him.

"Girl, you better relax 'fore you piss me off more than ya already 'ave!" Daryl shouted, catching Maggie off guard and startling her.

"'Cause if I remember right, while you was busy playing Dawn of the dead Romeo and Juliet style - cuttin' walkers open and making blood signals, I was the one watchin' 'er. Don't seem you was too concerned 'bout 'er 'til it was convenient for ya!"

The train car fell silent.

"Don't you DARE try to tell me I wasn't concerned about my baby sister" Maggie's voice cracked as she yelled, flailing her arms around out of pure frustration and anger.

"Maggie, back off, NOW" Rick said in his usual authoritative tone, trying to alleviate the situation the only way he knew how too. "You're not helping, we can talk about it, but not like this" He continued.

"DON'T TELL ME TO BACK OFF"

Maggie and the rest of the car ducked as two loud metal clanging noises rang on top of the car along with the clear backfires of the gun that shot at the car.

"HEY" a voice yelled from the entrance to the train car. "I need y'all to shut the fuck up unless you want me to come in there with this gun, and I won't be shooting at the car it'll be your faces!"

Silence fell. Maggie stormed to the corner of the train car sobbing, receiving sympathetic looks from the people around her as Glenn followed her there. Daryl rubbed his face vigorously before taking his fist and slamming it into the side of the train car as he sat down. Everyone else stood there for a moment, trying to understand. Trying to comprehend what the hell they just witnessed. Hell, even Daryl was trying to comprehend it as well.

He hated himself for losing her. He hated it every minute sense he had.

Daryl sat with his back against the train car, knees propped up and his hands draped across them as he tried his best to calm down. looking up at the rust holes through the top of the car to the little beams of light shining through it.

"You and I" Rick began, he was kneeling next to Daryl at this point so he was in his eye line. Daryl eventually rolled his head down and looked over at rick through his hair that clearly was too long by now. "We need to talk."


	2. Cracked Exterior

**First off I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who Favorited, followed or reviewed this story. Please don't hesitate to leave me some feedback! Love y'all  
**

* * *

"Maggie" Rick began, concern evident in his eyes. "I'm gonna need you to relax, alright?" Maggie had her knees tucked to her chest, her eyes were practically swollen shut from sobbing as hard as she had been. She didn't look at rick. Rather, she stared blankly into the darkness of the train car. Glenn was sitting beside her, rubbing her back and trying as hard as he could to comfort her in any way that he could. Rick glanced at Glenn giving him a concerned look as well. Rick cared about Maggie - Hell, he cared for all of the group. He felt helpless though at this point. Helping Maggie cope with this loss was going to be a hard thing, if not impossible to do. He wasn't even sure if Beth was alive, or if she was a walker, or what had happened to her.

Rick knew that feeling clearly, especially because of Lori. When Lori went into labor and Maggie had to perform the emergency Cesarian which ultimately resulted in Lori's death. There wasn't anyway around that scenario though, from what Maggie had explained to Rick about her state, how she was profusely bleeding and wasn't dialating but was in excruciating pain. The option of both of them living wasn't really an option. Maggie had to either save the baby- or lose them both. The feeling of anger and frustration and guilt was almost unbearable. When he got to where Lori was and her body was missing, it was almost like he was unable to grieve. unable to let go. unable to move on.

"I'm gonna go talk to him, alright?" Rick began, placing his hand lightly on Maggie's shin, careful to not startle her or make her angry and set her off again. "maybe he's just as scared as you are about all of this Maggie. We all are." Rick looked around as he spoke, knowing that he wasn't just talking about Beth, he was talking about how scared everyone really was about what was going on.

Maggie looked up slowly, first to Rick, then to Daryl who was about ten feet away from her. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, releasing two hot tears that left streaks through the dirt and dust on her face. "I don't give a damn about what that bastard has to say" Maggie said in a very low tone, but it came out just as mean in tone as she wanted it to. And although she looked like she meant it, the words were like poison in her mouth. She was angry with Daryl - yes. But she knew for a fact that whatever Daryl knew was her best and only shot of finding her younger sister. Or at least finding out what had happened to her.

"Well," Rick said as he stood up, sighing. "You should care. Because like it or not he;s the last one we know of to have been with her. He probably is the best shot we got at finding her" it was like he read her mind. She knew he was right. She ducked her head down between her legs, taking a deep breath.

"Hey, hey." Glenn said, getting her attention. "It's gonna be alright, he's gonna find her." Glenn grabbed her chin and rubbed it with his forefingers, forcing her to look at him.

"You don't know that" She replied, avoiding looking directly at him for a moment. "What makes you think he actually cares about what happened or is happening to her?" Maggie turned her head away from Glenn, wiping her face with the arm of the sleeve of her shirt.

"Maggie, look at him" Maggie looked at Daryl, who hadn't moved or barely even looked at anyone sense the argument happened. he looked sad, Maggie thought. She watched as Rick walked over to Daryl and sat down. Daryl didn't even budge. His eyes lingered at the ground as Rick began talking.

"You remember when we lost Sophia don't you?" It was more of rhetorical question. Of course she remembered that. That's really the reason why she got to know Glenn as much as she did. She remembered having to tend to Daryl when he came back from searching for Sophia alone in the woods. An arrow wound through his torso, and a bullet wound that grazed the side of his head, not to mention multiple bruises and contusions to his head, face and the rest of his body. The Daryl she saw then was smaller in build comparison. Daryl seemed much stronger physically now, but emotionally he seemed broken now.

The Daryl she first met was so rough around the edges, hostile and a down right ass hole. He always had that really sarcastic sense of humor that she remembered Beth getting a kick out of. She smiled remembering the time Daryl was getting stitched up by her father

* * *

_ "Any idea what happened to my horse?" Hershel asked as Beth walked in with a plate of food, setting it neatly on the beside table next to him. Daryl snickered. _

_"Yeah if it's smart it left the country" He said in his usual smart alec tone, earning a soft giggle from Beth as she walked out of the room._

* * *

"If she's out there Maggie, he'll find her. I can promise you that much."

* * *

"You know when we were out on the road it was just Carl and I for a while. Thought everyone was dead, you included" Daryl looked at rick after he finished talking, remembering the drunken fight he had with Beth outside of the house they were in where he had told Beth that everyone was dead. Oh how wrong he was, he thought. after a brief silence, Daryl spoke up

"we did too," he said looking down, absentmindedly kicking some dirt around with his foot.

"that's not right. She didn't-I did." Daryl felt Ricks eyes staring at him as he ignored his eye line and continued to stare forward.

"We got ina fight one day, we were drinkin'" Rick cocked one of his eyebrows in surprise.

"You were drinking?" he asked. "Beth too?" Daryl waved his had, dismissing the question. The look on ricks face was clearly disapproving, but in that moment, he really didn't care.

"we were fightin'.. yellin' at each other. I was bein a Dick." Daryl paused for a minute before continuing. "Told 'er her whole family and everyone we knew was dead." Daryl felt his chest get tight. The conversation was bringing back memories to the surface. Ones he didn't want to deal with. He picked at the stitching on the sides of his pants while he continued.

"told 'er she'd never see Maggie again." Rick nodded his head in understanding.

"She ran off?" Rick assumed that was what he was getting at, that he scared her off. That was the only conclusion he could come to at that point.

"Nah," Daryl answered, "I was still with her for a while after that too" Rick sighed, leaning his head back to hit the cold metal of the train car wall. Daryl was not an easy person to read or understand. He felt as though that was the only information he was going to get out of him without pissing him off. He could tell Rick was getting frustrated with him.

"We found this place, kinda like a funeral home" Daryl cracked a smile that rick caught as he eyed him curiously. Daryl could almost hear her signing softly, playing piano as he watched from the hallway, crossbow over his shoulder. "She stepped on some kinda trap so I wrapped 'er ankle up and we stayed. It got over run with walkers. I told 'er to go to the street." Rick looked more and more concerned the more Daryl told him. He began to slowly understand why Daryl didn't want to explain why they got separated.

"I got out... Saw 'er bag dropped and this car speedin' off away from the place. A car that wadn't there 'fore." Rick finally understood it.

"so she was taken, is that right?" Daryl merely nodded. He didn't feel comfortable talking about it, let alone thinking about it. But if he were to talk about it to anyone, Rick would be the guy he'd go to.

Daryl allowed himself to think about that night for the first time sense it had happened. Remembering his desperate attempt to escape the herd inside of the mortuary. Standing outside and hesitating briefly before killing the one lone walker that was standing outside. The thought hit him hard.

_If i woulda just run past him or took him out quick. this wouldnt've happened_.

They sat in silence for a moment. Both thinking about everything that was said. "So now what?" Rick asked. Daryl shrugged his shoulders and looked around.

"I recon gettin outta here would be the first step" Rick laughed,

"Yeah you're right on that one, brother." Rick was lost in thought trying to figure out who would take Beth Greene. Meanwhile, Daryl was lost in his own thoughts too.

"I ran after that car all night man," Daryl finally said, looking at him directly in the eye for the first time sense they started this conversation. "Ran all night 'till I couldn't run no more." Daryl hung his head, and Rick looked at him, unsure of what to say next. Just as Rick was about to speak up, Daryl continued talking.

"You know, she said somethin' to me." Daryl ran both hands through his hair, Rick couldn't tell if he was sweating profusely, or if he was crying. "She said I would be the last man standing. That she was gonna die, and I'd still be here." Rick studied his face, realizing after a moment that he in fact was crying. Rick wouldn't dare say anything about it, this was the first time he'd seen real raw emotion from Daryl. His rough exterior cracking before his very eyes.

"She said to me, she said 'you're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon.'" Daryl dropped his head again, on the verge of losing it.

"You care about her, amiright?" Daryl didn't even flinch. "we're gonna find her, Daryl. I promise you that" Daryl shook his head,

"No, you got Carl." He pointed into the direction of Ricks son, who was sleeping soundly on Michonne's lap on the opposite side of the train car. Rick looked to Carl for a moment, but then turned his focus back to Daryl.

"She's one of us, Daryl." Rick said sternly.

"They look to you man," Daryl began, clearly upset beyond reason. He shook his head, "I gotta do this. Not you, Not Glenn and Maggie or Michonne. It's gotta be me." Daryl was determined. Rick thought he had lost his mind.

"I swore to myself I'd protect that girl. That I wouldn't let anythin' happen to 'er. And I broke that promise to myself. I'm gonna find her. I am going to find her. I owe her and Hershel that much."


	3. Keep The Faith

**AN: Hey everybody! I'm so thrilled y****'all like my writing, you have no idea how much it means to me.**

**Also! A lot of you reviewing have wondered what I thought happened to Beth. Well, here it is. Funny enough, this was the first chapter that I wrote for this story. If y'all are farmiliar with the comics, you'll recognize someone almost immidiately. If not, look him up! He's a really great character and I'm crossing my fingers we see him next season.**

**Also, this is pretty much my therapy for not having TWD until October, kill me now.**

**Love you all , leave me some feedback if you'd like :)**

Beth placed her fingers on the glass of the window of the car she was sitting in lightly, focusing on the caked blood and dirt underneath her fingernails. She reached through the center console to the left of her, searching for some kind of pointed object through the mess of sticky and dirty coins that were in it, for something she could pick the dirt out with. Trying to pin-point exactly where the dirt and blood had came from was nearly impossible, she imagined that it was walker blood. She laughed to herself, knowing that if she had seen this maybe two years ago, she would be utterly repulsed by the sight.

But things were different now, walker blood and dirt underneath her fingernails was probably the least of her worries at the moment.

She had plenty of things on her mind for the past few days. For one, Daryl. Beth had confidence in Daryl, but when she heard his frantic yelling of her name and appeared in the doorway to toss him his crossbow, she caught sight of the herd that was larger than she had expected, and it was frightening. There was too many to count on her hands, which was way too much for anyone to handle - even if it was Daryl.

"What are ya laughin' 'bout" the driver of the car's voice broke her focus momentarily. "Oh, nothin'" She replied quietly, not meeting his eye line. He made her feel doubtful every time she managed to look in his direction. She knew how he felt about what she wanted, no, needed to do.

"We almost there?" she asked. They'd be driving not even an hour, but every minute she didn't know if anyone she loved was still alive was excruciating, and it made her anxious. "Almost there, Miss Greene, Just a few more side streets."

As much as Beth knew she should be thankful for the man rescuing her, she positively resented him. She could feel the bump on the back of her head that she had received from him the night at the mortuary, and rubbed it absentmindedly. It was hot to the touch still, and gave her an endless headache that she couldn't seem to manage to fight off for the past few days and nights.

"Y'ain't gonna hold that against me are ya, miss Greene?" The man noticed her rubbing the knot on the back of her head. Beth looked over to the man who likely was around the same age as her father. Grey hairs on his beard and head were stark in contrast to his dark skin tone. Beth sighed loudly, " Father Gabriel, I told ya to call me Beth." She said, clearly annoyed with the term 'Miss Greene'

It's not like she didn't understand his actions, Beth knew that the only reason he had knocked her out in the first place in the driveway is because he knew as well as she did that she wouldn't have gotten into the car willingly. She would have stayed back, she wouldn't have left without Daryl. Father Gabriel was simply trying to save her.

However, what Father Gabriel Stokes didn't know is that she wasn't alone. She was with Daryl. So when she woke up the next morning, covered in sweat and a wool blanket, lying in the back seat of a car she didn't recognize, she panicked. Pulling her knife on him as she jumped out of the car.

* * *

_"Ma'am please, you're okay now" He had said to her, holding his hands up to show he wasn't a threat. Beth wasn't buying it. "Where am I?" She demanded, a low growl came out of her throat that was nothing short of animalistic. She was afraid, she was hurt, she was angrier than all hell._

_When Father Gabriel didn't answer her, she raised her voice as loud as she could "WHERE AM I? WHO ARE YOU? WHY DID YOU TAKE ME?" practically blowing her own eardrums out in the process, her own voice shouting back at her as it echoed against the walls of the parking garage she was in. "There were the biters, they-they were everywhere-that's where I was staying and I saw you. you were just a girl - and I had to save you. You don't know what this world's done to me you just don't" The man was in tears, pleading for his life as he tried to explain why he had done what he did to her._

_"Hold up." Daryl's voice echoed in her head. "There ain't a spec a dust on this. This is somebody's stash...Alright we'll take some and leave the rest"_

_Beth lowered her knife slowly. "That- that was your place?"_

_"Yes, I own the place. " He said quietly._

* * *

"Beth," Father Gabriel said, correcting himself. "I have to say, I don't think you're going to be happy with what you find in there." His tone was almost consoling. After she had come to her senses in the parking garage, she had explained to him about the prison, about Rick and Carl, Michonne, her father, Maggie, Glenn, and of course Daryl. He had protested with her when she demanded that he bring her back, saying that all in all there would be nothing to find - nothing good, that is. She looked out the window, seeing the tall white mortuary in the near distance. "You don't know him like I do." She whispered, not breaking her gaze from the building she was approaching.

She knew the reality of it was he might be right, but Beth knew that if anyone could have made it out of there, it would be Daryl.

The car came to a stop out front of the mortuary, as she emerged from the car she looked at the cemetery directly to the side of the building. Hundreds upon hundreds of headstones in a varying shade of white and grey based on age. She could almost see Daryl and herself standing by the headstone she had become fixated with, with the writing "beloved father" on the stone. It wasn't her fathers stone of course, but the words on the stone made her instantly think of her father. How much she missed him, and how much she wished she could change things.

Tears pricked her eyes, she remembered how she watched him pull some yellow flowers out of the ground and gently place them on top of the headstone in front of them, before standing next to her. When she reached for his hand, to her surprise, he didn't even hesitate before intertwining his fingers with her own. A voice broke her memory out of her head "Beth,"

Beth turned to see Father Gabriel walking towards the house, he turned his head back to her and said "Wait here, I'll check the house." She watched him raise the gun out of his belt before she ran up and pushed past him. "Don't." She said pointing the blade of her knife at the gun. "It'll just attract more of 'em from around here." She turned and walked slowly to the front door of the house, stepping over what was left of the string of cans and other objects Daryl had strung to warn for walkers. She realized the front door was open, but not completely. Beth took the back end of the knife and hit it against the frame of the door a few times. "Give it a minute" She said holding a finger up to Gabriel.

She realized the irony in how just a few days ago she was in the same position, except she was the one telling the other to stay back while she checked the house instead. After a few minutes, when she didn't hear any movement, she creaked the door until it came to a stop against something that was in the way of it opening all the way. Something was blocking it.

Beth raised her knife and walked through,, silently praying her worst fears weren't about to become a reality. As she rounded the door, she came face to face with what was blocking the door, and she exhaled shakily.

Beside the door laid a walker, a weak one at that. Hollowed out face, missing it's right arm and with an arrow through it's left eye socket. She stared at it for a moment. Father Gabriel walked through and stood next to the body as well and watched as Beth bent down and yanked the arrow out of it's skull. She lifted it up and shook the black liquid off of it before walking towards the kitchen.

She felt as if there were weights attached to both of her feet as she walked towards the kitchen. On the way there was the viewing room with the piano where she and Daryl had spent time in the first night they had arrived. The room was just as they had left it. Arriving at the kitchen made Beth's heart feel just as heavy as her feet. The food was in the same exact position she had left it in. Father Gabriel walked over through the kitchen and looked at the food across the table, rotating the jar of peanut butter in his hand. "well at least you enjoyed it" He said with a reassuring smile that Beth saw out of the corner of her eye but ignored it.

Every room she seemed to walk past or be in she could see her and Daryl. She could see him carrying her across the kitchen and placing her in the chair. She could see him lying in the casket and watching her as she played piano and sang. She could see him running for the door. She could hear the voices in her head of the conversation they had just before he ran for the door.

Beth turned around and headed towards the downstairs area of the house, where Daryl had wrapped her ankle. She saw lying on the stairs a walker, but this one didn't have an arrow to the skull. It's face was completely rearranged. More than likely, he had smashed it with his crossbow, she thought. She continued her decent down the steps, counting the walkers as she went down, all of them face up. She counted five of them until she got to the doorway of the embalming room. Footsteps behind her confirmed that Father Gabriel was making his descent as well.

As she got closer, she realized just how many of them there had been. Her eyes drifted across the room, seeing at least ten or eleven walker bodies scattered across the floor. The room was in complete and utter disarray, the exam tables tossed across the room, black blood spatter littered across the walls and the ceiling, tools of various sorts covered in blood and scattered across the room. She stood frozen for a moment, realizing all of the bodies were face down. She inhaled deeply through her nose and out of her mouth before stepping down into the room to turn over the bodies one by one, tears stinging her eyes and splashing onto the tile floor as she flipped each on over examining their faces.

One body at a time, she flipped them over, almost unable to see as she looked at their faces. Finally she got to the last one, dropping to her knees as she placed her face in her hands. She felt Father Gabriel kneel beside her and place a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Beth." He said. She looked up at him and smiled "It's not him. He's not here." she said, almost in a whisper, wiping the tears off of her face. "He got out" She said, louder this time.

"Beth," he began, "Chances are.."

"His crossbow isn't here." She cut him off. "He's not here, he got out." She said again defiantly, standing up and walking over the bodies to get to door of the building.

She darted for the door, Father Gabriel following in suit and scanned the property for other walkers. There was a few on the ground near the road, but no more than that. She searched the ground for prints, walking towards the road where Father Gabriel had grabbed her. She used the skills he taught her, that she was thankful he had taught her.

She knelt down into the dirt on the road and pointed to a print to show him. "See this?" she said. pointing to a clear boot print in the ground.

"It could be anyone." He said exasperated.

"But it could be HIM" She said, emphasizing the word 'him' to prove her point.

Father Gabriel stood in silence, from the look on his face it was clear to Beth that he didn't believe it.

"Look," Beth said as she stood up to face him. "I understand why you might think that. Hell, anyone in their right mind would." She looked at the ground, her voice fading.

"I have to do this. You don't have to understand why. I have to believe it's him because believe it or not, he's all I got left." Father Gabriel merely nodded and looked around for a moment.

"Well, if you need me, you know where to find me" He said before turning towards the car and walking away.

"Hey!" Beth yelled to him. He turned around to face her again. "Thank you, for saving my life."

Father Gabriel tipped his hat a smiled, continuing his strides to the car. Beth started to walk towards the road. Following the hazy frantic foot prints as the car pulled up next to her just next to the property line.

"This is for you" Father Gabriel said, handing her a red book with gold ends on the paper around the edges, with a golden cross printed into the leather on the front of the book. "You'll need it." Beth smiled.

"I-I can't take this. This is yours." She said handing it back to him through the window. He laughed and lightly pushed it back to her. "I have plenty up in here" he said, pointing to his head. "Read that thing more times than I can count. Good Luck to you, Beth." He said driving away slowly, clearly trying not to mess up any tracks down the road if he could help it.

She looked down to the book and opened the first page, and smiled to herself at the inscription.

_"Keep the faith, Miss Greene. I hope you find what you're looking for. Always remember the Lord is never too far away." - The Reverend Gabriel Stokes._

Beth tucked the bible into her bag and followed the tracks to the road, more determined than she ever was before.


	4. Red

"Alright, that's it" Abraham stood up, walking to the door of the train car past everyone else whom was lying or sitting on the floor.

"HEY!" he yelled, banging his fist loudly against the metal of the train car. "I SAID HEY!" he yelled again even louder, smashing his fist repeatedly over and over again until Rick came up behind him. "hey hey hey, calm down man" Abraham looked at him angrily, shaking his head in frustration.

It had been almost 5 days sense Rick, Carl, Michonne and Daryl had came into the train car, and when that door shut behind him, it hadn't been opened sense.

"You see these people? They're hungry. You see that man over there?" He raised one hand and pointed into the direction of Eugene, "I'm responsible for that man, and that man only. You might want to make sure that the people that are here get some food in the near future because if you haven't noticed, it's been five god damn days sense you got here and I'm not just gonna sit around like you all are" He shoved Rick back away from him, causing Daryl to stand up and walk towards him slowly. "Hey, hey, you back off too." he said, shoving his finger in the direction of Daryl who looked to Rick before stepping back to his original position.

They stared at each other for a moment, and just as he was about to say something, a noise outside startled him. Abraham backed away when he heard some movement outside of the door.

"Rick," Maggie piped in "He's right, it's been too long sense we la-"

"Shh." Rick said, looking in her direction, signalling her to be quiet.

"You fuckin' do it then" One voice said, dangerously close to the door. "I ain't playin' escort this time, not uh. Not me." The voice said again. Rick tilted his head, trying to figure out what it is he may be talking about.

"Alright!" The man yelled, hitting his palm twice against the door. "I'm gonna open this door, and I'm taking two of you with me. Don't try anything stupid. I want all of you lined up against the wall directly across from me. Do it now!"

The look on everyones faces was sheer fright. Nothing short of that. Mostly because there was no way to know what was going to happen, who the two people were going to be, where they were going to go, and most importantly what they were going to do with them.

They slowly walked to the opposite side, with their backs against the wall.

Maggie squeezed Glenn's hand tightly for what felt like the hundreth time sense they had arrived. Rick stood next to carl and touched his shoulder. When Carl looked him in the eye and gave him a reassuring stare, Rick couldn't help but realize how strong Carl was. And how brave he had been and was continuing to be, especially considering what he'd been through when he should have just gotten the chance to live a normal childhood.

Daryl stood in the middle of Sasha and Eugene, looking to the small sliver of light through the door, waiting anxiously for it to open. 'doing something stupid' as they had said in Daryls mind would have been immidiately bolting out of the door as soon as it opened. But he knew for a fact he wouldn't get far, he'd probably end up getting shot. And besides that, he couldn't just leave everyone behind. Not here anyway, reguadless of what he knew he needed to do.

When the door opened and their eyes adjusted to the light, they could only see one man standing there, unarmed.

"Like I said," He began as he walked forward, "dont try anything stupid." He approached the end of the line and walked down to the other end, looking at every person individually, studying them for a long time each.

"Alright, you" The man pointed to Daryl first, but he didn't budge. The man put his hand to his chin as he looked at everyone again. "And you." Pointing to Maggie.

"She's pregnant." Glenn said, causing the man to raise an eyebrow. Maggie tensed and noticed the others do the same. Maggie realized after her mind kicked in a bit that it was Glenn's tactic to save her, more than likely. Because as far as she knew, she wasn't pregnant.

The man just laughed, "Oh, is that right? Congratulations." he said sarcastically. "does it look like I care? Get moving." Neither one of them moved. Daryl because he just was defiant most of the time, and didn't trust the man, or his people. Whereas Maggie was petrified.

The man dropped his head laughing, before he pulled a gun out from underneath his shirt and pointed it directly at Glenn's face, not even looking at him. He stared at Maggie and never broke focus, which made Maggie stiffen.

"I said, get moving." His face emotionless as he repeated what he had said before.

Daryl stepped forward and looked at Maggie, "C'mon" He said, not wanting to see anything happen to Glenn, or her. He could see Maggie sacrificing herself for Glenn, but one false move and Daryl was sure that they all would be dead.

Maggie looked at him desperately, not knowing what to do or what to say. Slowly, she released her grip on Glenn's hand and stepped forward.

"You," he said, pointing to Daryl. "You go first, Go down the steps and wait there. Do anything stupid, and this girl's getting a bullet between the eyes, understand?" Daryl nodded, stepping down to the ground and finally feeling the heat of sunlight on his skin for the first time in days.

He remembered vaugley his mother talking about Vitamin B or some shit like that, how it could make you feel better just by the rays of the sun. But that fell flat because although being outside was a good change of scenery to some degree, it didn't change the situation at hand.

Maggie followed behind Daryl, stopping at the ground right behind him as they waited on further instruction. He could hear Maggie's ragged breathing behind him, and was almost positive that she was crying.

Back in the train car, as the man turned to walk out, he was stopped by Rick's voice. "What are you doing with them?" He demanded, taking a step forward. The man smiled, and it made his skin crawl. The smile was not a genuine happy, or any kind of good smile, he couldn't pin point it, but it made him uncomfortable.

"Don't worry about it."

He walked towards Maggie, gun raised and pointed directly at Maggie's head. "Door, to the right. Go through there, and you'll be met inside. Now."

Daryl stepped forward slowly, feeling weak from the lack of food. Before he turned the handle he turned around to look at Maggie. "'s gonna be alright." He said consolingly. Not even really sure why he felt the need to try and comfort her in any way shape or form, especially considering the nasty looks and comments he'd been recieving from her the last few days.

Maggie nodded, and followed through the hallway behind Daryl, when they were met by two different people. Both Daryl recognized immiidately. "I'm Mary, and this is Garrett." She said, smiling broadly. She looked erily friendly to them, which startled them completely.

She sighed at their lack of response. "Young Lady, you're gonna come with me in here and take a seat," She said, walking to one of the doors in the hallway and opening it. Maggie stopped as she got to the doorway.

"What about him?" She said, almost inaudibly. "Oh, he'll be going with Garett, no worries." She said, placing a hand on her shoulder, to which Maggie jerked away from like her hand was on fire. She walked forward and Mary shut the door, leaving just Garrett and Daryl facing each other in the hallway.

"Well, guess it's just you and I, then." Garrett said walking down the hallway. Daryl followed, because he was sure he was going to be stuck with the guy for god knows how long. Garrett turned the corner, and opened a different door and gestured for him to go inside.

"After you." Daryl stared at him for a long time, trying to read the guy as much as possible. To see if he had a glimmer of fear in his eyes, or if he was at all intimidated by him. But as far as he could tell, he wasn't.

He walked into the room which smelt musty. Looking around he noticed a rectangular steel table with two chairs pushed in across from one another. "Take a seat," Garrett said as he rounded to the other side of the table and sat down, threading his hands together and placing them behind his head as he settled into the chair.

Daryl stood there, not wanting to sit or really do anything the man asked of him.

"C'mon now man, be polite." He held his hand out gesturing to the chair again, daryl cringed inwardly as he yanked the chair out backwards and dragged it making an awful screeching noise against the floor before he sat in the chair and looked at him.

"Alrighty then that's better. So, tell me." Garrett said.

"Tell you what?" Daryl snarled.

"About you, about what you've gone through, what's your name?"

"I ain't tellin' you nothin'" Daryl said, looking away from him studying the walls and the flooring, not making eye contact with the man at all, if he could help it.

"I get it," Garrett said with a sigh, placing his elbow on the table as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"Get what?" Daryl said, confused, watching Garrett as he pulled a cigarette out of the pack and gestured the pack to him.

"Get what?" Daryl repeated as he grabbed the ciggarette from his hand and lit it.

"Hope you like menthol" Garrett said with an erie smile.

"Douchebag." Daryl muttered as the smoke billowed out of his mouth.

Garrett took a long drag from the cigarette blowing it into the air before continuing. "I get why you don't wanna say anything to me. I mean hell we shot at you, stole your weapons, took your friends things." He tapped on the end of the cigarette, ashing it on the steel table before continuing. "I'm letting you know if you cooperate, you and your friends will be just fine."

"What makes you think Im gonna believe a damn thing you say" Daryl said, this time looking at him straight into the eyes.

The man - Who really looked like a young guy, maybe Glenn's age didn't intimidate Daryl at all. He knew that he could over power the son of a bitch easily, but he was one of the people there. How many people there were in their group was questionable.

"Because I'm gonna make you a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Daryl realized he was retorting questions to almost every question he was asked. He laughed for a minute, a smile creeping across his face before he tossed the cigarette butt across the room.

Garrett pushed the chair back and walked around the table, standing behind Daryl as he spoke.

"Tell me, what happened to your face? And your rib cage? Oh, and that right leg you've been favoring sense I've seen you walking."

Daryl stared forward, not willing to answer the question. He didn't like thinking back to that night with Joe and his men. What they had done to Rick, what they tried to do to Carl.

"Because, I'll tell you, looks an awful lot like you got the shit kicked out of you." Garrett was pacing around the table, watching Daryl's every move, every facial expression.

"Yeah, well, you should see the other guys." Daryl said examining the black painted letters on the walls reading "Us first, always" his face must have shown his confusion, because he watched Garrett look at it too before smiling and looking back to him.

"Wanna know what that means? It's pretty simple. The people here including myself take surviving and the saftey of my people very, very seriously." Garrett sat back down across from him. "And when I say seriously, I mean that we're not willing to take chances with outsiders."

Daryl scrunched his eyebrows together and shook his head, "Well that makes no fuckin' sense." He snarled, not even believing the words he had said.

"We'll I'd like to know why it is you feel that way. I'm all ears." He said, almost sarcastically.

"Well for starters, y'all have signs up practically begging people to come here." Garrett paused.

Thinking for a moment as he pulled another cigarette out of his pocket and lit it. "I'll give you that." He said with a chuckle.

"We're done here." Daryl said. Standing and walking towards the door. Fed up with the bullshit he was being fed.

"Daryl, is it?" Daryl stopped in his tracks, releasing his hold on the door handle.

"What did you say?" Daryl stalked towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, yanking him up out of the chair.

"Your name is Daryl, isn't it?" He repeated, seemingly not phased by his aggressive action.

Daryl released his grip and stepped back, "how do you know that, how do you know my name?!" Within inches from his face, Garrett smiled and laughed

"Don't tell me that you honestly think it was a coincidence that we grabbed you, and her sister, but nobody else?"

Daryl instantly saw red. There was one way and only one way he would know that.

Beth.


	5. Chained

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry I was going to update last night but my stupid ass decided to go to a bar -_- so basically my drunk ass was at the bar thinking about it all night, naturally.  
**

**Anyway, here's another chapter for y'all, this one is super long, about double the length of my usual chapters but I didn't want to break it up, seems like it all needed to be together in one chapter.**

**I also wanted to express my concern for a fellow bethyl supporter Rian, who was in a car accident last week. Let's all hope she has a easy recovering process. I absolutely LOVE her story "Respectfully, CMC Dixon" If you haven't read that story - DO IT NOW. It's incredible.  
**

**I'm also taking requests, would like to do some One Shots for you guys so if you have an idea, don't be shy! I'm open to just about everything. **

**Enjoy! Leave some love if you like!**

* * *

"Damnit!" Beth yelled as she reached the railroad tracks, running her fingers through her hair. "What the hell?"

Beth had been tracking for what seemed like weeks, even though it had only been a day or two. Rarely stopping, and if she did it was to use the bathroom or eat something- anything that she could find. Whether that be berries, or the peanut butter she had taken from the house when they were inside searching it.

It seemed as though every single damn set of bootprints or footprints she found led her right back to the damn railroad tracks. She couldn't seem to understand why.

She stepped over the wooden rail and sat on the tracks, stretching her legs out for the first time in a while and let out a deep breath. She was covered in dirt, covered in sweat, and by the looks of her boots she could tell she had pretty much worn out the sole in them. She made a mental note that at sometime in the near future she would have to get some new ones.

Beth wiped the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand, staring up at the sun with her hand still resting on her forehead shielding her from the sunlight as best as she could. It had to have been noon, or at least that's what she thought. The sun was glaring down onto her pale skin like it had been for the past few day, burning her mercilessly. She made another mental note that she would have to find sunscreen somehow in the near future.

She looked out into the trees and thought for a while. Thought if she was the only one left - but that thought was easily pushed out of her head. She thought about how she was going to do this, especially being alone. Everyone knew that nowadays your strength comes from how many people around you. And Beth had nobody at the moment. She could easily be overpowered by a group, or taken down by a herd.

Something caught her eye in the railroad tracks, stuck underneath of it but still poking out an inch or two. She crawled on her hands and knees across the tracks to pull out the object, realizing it was a candy wrapper. She flipped it over, placing the tear in the plastic together so she could make out the brand it was.

"Big Kat" she said softly out loud to herself. She knew there was a stash of them at the prison that Carl pretty much guarded with his life, but it was a long shot to think that it was his. Still, it was the best lead she had so far, otherwise her other option was to continue following footprints around in circles.

She stood up, putting the discarded candy wrapper into her bag as she hoisted it onto her shoulder. She followed the railroad tracks with her eyes, until she saw that it made a bend around the corner and faded out of sight. she let out a sigh. "well, here goes nothing."

Beth had been walking for a good 30 minutes when she heard a noise behind her, a low moaning noise that clearly was a walker. She reached for her knife that was tucked into her belt loop and turned around, seeing that it was a little ways away. She decided to ignore it as she continued walking, keeping her knife in her hand just in case.

She kept her head down, counting the tracks one by one as she walked on forward. She glanced at something that caught her attention, a rotting corpse to the right of the tracks. She stepped down off of the tracks and looked at the body. Clearly it was a walker. It had a clear knife wound into the soft flesh of it's forehead. As she looked down, it had a gash through its stomach at least 6 inches in length. As she bent down and looked, she was startled. It almost looked to her like someone drained the stomach of all of the walker blood.

"What the.." Beth said, transfixed by the body on the ground. She shook her head and stood up, walking back towards the platform when something stopped her dead in her tracks.

"GLENN, go to Terminus" - Maggie

Beth felt her mouth go dry, and her blood run cold. She walked across the railroad tracks to the sign painted on some sort of electrical box right next to the tracks and placed her hand on the writing. It was dry, clearly written with the blood of the walker she had just been examining. She turned around to look at the body again, seeing it sprawled out and decaying before turning her focus back to the writing.

So Maggie's alive, Beth thought, feeling some sort of relief wash over her. But at the same time Beth couldn't help but be angry. Angry that the only concern Maggie had seem to have had at the time she wrote this was Glenn. But not her. Beth had always been so close with Maggie, when Glenn came along it slowly started to change, but she never thought that it would have made Maggie write her off and search for him and not give her a second thought.

Tears fell from her eyes, she felt hurt. She felt abandoned. Honestly, she wasn't even sure if Daryl or any of the others were looking for her either. She wiped the tears from her eyes and shook her head trying her best to shake off the feeling she had. That was when she saw the sign on the other side of the electrical box. She read the sign, and looked at the map. She realized then why all of the footprints were leading to the tracks and why it seemed as though she was walking in circles. It was because everyone was headed that way.

She knew now that Maggie was headed that way, and maybe Glenn was too. The others, if they had seen this, would probably make their way that was as well.

Her mind floated to Judith for the first time in a few weeks, wondering how she was, and if she had been picked up by one of the people from the prison. She prayed silently that she had made it on the bus and was safe somehow. She remembered looking for the kids. Lizzie, Micah, Judith and the others. Not knowing what had happened to the kids broke her heart. Especially after all of the time she spent with them, taking care of them and getting to know them almost as if they were her own.

Beth continued walking for the rest of the day, trying her best to put the negative thoughts aside and move forward. Passing more signs put up by Maggie. A few hours before dark she had passed a sign with Maggie's name, as well as Sasha's and Bob's as well. She had a small glimmer of hope, knowing now that if she arrived to Terminus and the others had as well, she wouldn't be alone. It was getting darker and darker, quicker than the past few days it seemed. She knew that she couldn't keep following the tracks through the night but she knew standing or sleeping in the middle of the train tracks with no protection whatsoever was even more dangerous.

She kept walking, but faster this time, trying to beat the sunlight so she could find some sort of cover for the night.

"You know," A voice came out from behind her, surprising her as she turned around and started to back up only to trip backwards and fall on her rear. She hissed out in pain, but still had enough sense to grab the knife out of her belt and point it forward as she locked eyes with the person in front of her.

"You're walking awful fast, trying to find something?" The man was dressed in probably the cleanest clothes she had seen in weeks. His brown hair fell in front of his eyes, and he continued to walk towards her smiling.

"Stay back" She warned, scrambling to her feet and stepping backwards, more carefully this time. The man stopped and held his hands up.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm trying to help you." The man said as he came to a halt about ten feet away from her. The sentence he said reminded her instantaneously of Father Gabriel. But she felt uneasy, she didn't trust Father Gabriel at first, and she sure as hell wasn't about to trust some guy who randomly approached her from behind out of nowhere.

"Is that where you're headed?" He pointed behind her head. She knew he was gesturing towards the terminus sign just behind her, she had seen it when she was walking before he had approached her.

"What's it to you?" She said icily.

"I'm from there, out gathering some firewood. You know," He began as he took a step closer, only for Beth to take two steps backwards with her knife still raised. "I'm from there," He continued. "you can follow these tracks and it'll take you a few days to get there. But if you go that way, over the ridge and up the hill, you'll be there in maybe an hour on foot."

Beth didn't even budge. She heard everything he had said, but the look on her face was almost as if it went in one ear and out the other.

"I can take you there, if you'd like. It's not safe for a girl so young and so beautiful to be out here alone." He outstretched his hand.

"What makes you think I would go anywhere with you. I don't know you I don't trust you." She turned around, and started running across the tracks, feeling like her feet were going to give out any moment. She looked behind her and didn't see the man anymore, but that didn't stop her for a moment. She continued until she was completely out of breath. With her hands on her knees she was heaving, breathing so hard she felt as though she couldn't catch her breath.

She looked up momentarily to see a bridge, so dark she could barely see 2 feet through it. her breathing was so loud she could hear it echoing down the tunnel. She looked to the left of her and saw yet another painted signal by Maggie. Beth walked over to it, running her fingers over the 'M' in Maggie when yet again, she was startled by a voice.

"You know, I gotta give it to you, you ran like a bat out of hell."

Beth whirled her head around to see the man yet again, standing a few feet away from her. She backed herself up towards the tunnel.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you. Last people I knew to walk through there barely made it out of there alive."

"I'm looking for someone" Beth Said "I mean - I'm looking for my people. Don't try to stop me, please."

The man smiled and looked at Beth with hooded eyes. "I'm really sorry about this, girl." He said. Beth squinted her eyes

"Sorry about wh-" The end of her sentence was cut off by yet, another blow to the back of the head.

* * *

When Beth finally came to, she was immediately aware of the swelling on the back of her head. She touched the burning piece of flesh underneath her hair and winced, scrunching her eyes from the pain. from the way it felt underneath her fingers, it was clear she had developed an enormous welt, covered with dirt and dried up blood to some degree. Ironically, whatever hit her by the tunnel managed to hit her in the same exact spot that Father Gabriel had hit her. "This shit is getting old" she huffed to herself, painfully aware of the throbbing in her head.

She sat up on her elbows and looked around, the room was well lit, she almost thought there was air conditioning. She shook that thought right out of her head, that was impossible. There was dirt scattered across the untiled floor, it was almost like the room was under construction. The walls were only half painted and the place looked like a mess.

She went to swing her legs off of the couch she had somehow ended up on, only to be stopped by a chain cuffed to her right ankle. She threw the blanket off of her in a panic, inspecting the chain and yanking at the lock, trying anything she could to free herself. She felt hot tears swelling into her eyes as her mind went back to Father Gabriel. "he was right" Beth whispered, still fiddling with the chain.

"You're wasting your time." A voice from behind her said. She turned around awkwardly, the chain tight around her ankle made it difficult to face any direction other than forward. It was the man from the railroad tracks, she realized quickly. He was flipping through a book, a red book. Her bible. He had a pair of black rimmed reading glasses on and didn't even bother to look in her direction.

"Why am I chained here? Please just let me go" She begged, pleading desperately to get out. She knew it was pointless, if these people followed her for however long they had followed her and resorted to knocking her out and chaining her in a room - there was no way they were going to willingly let her go.

The man folded the book shut, and placed in on his lap finally setting his eyes on Beth. "You're chained because you tried to run from us, had to keep you here somehow." He shrugged his shoulders and stood up, rounding the side of the couch to kneel next to her. Beth tried her best to put some distance between them, but it was a little hard considering she was confined to the couch.

"Name's Garrett." He said, holding his hand out for Beth to shake it. She looked down at it, confused before looking back at him. this man thinks I'm actually going to shake his hand? Beth thought.

The man sighed, placing his hand down on the couch while his other reached into the back of his pants and pulled out a gun. "Not gonna shoot you, not unless you do something stupid." He laughed, he could see the fear in her eyes. "How's about we go walk around, show you the place. Meet your people." He said, standing up and pulling a set of keys out of his pocket to unchain Beth's ankle.

"Not my people." Beth murmured. The man ignored her, releasing her ankle and walking towards the door. Beth stood up behind him.

"Please just tell me what you want. I-I have to find my people, I have to find out where they are, I have to find him."

Garrett turned around, "Him?" he said, his voice laced with curiosity.

Beth looked at her feet. "That's not what I meant." She said flatly, knowing she was lying through her teeth. Every second that past was another second of time she could be using to find Daryl, and everyone else.

Something changed in him the night they burned down the old house, she knew that for a fact. The words he had said to her stung, the words about Maggie and everyone being dead. But she knew he was scared, scared of letting his guard down, scared of letting anyone in and scared of showing any kind of emotion.

He had bottled it all up, the guilt he had, the pain and the loss.

When she hugged him out of desperation from behind, and grabbed onto him tightly, she couldn't help but want to comfort him. He relaxed after a moment, letting his head fall back and rest on hers as he cried. From that moment on, things were different. She had to be there for him, she knew that much. She knew that even though he pretends like he doesn't- he cares about her. Just like she cares about him.

He laughed, "Is that right?" he had some huge grin plastered on his face that made Beth want to smack it right off. "Let's go, get you somethin' to eat." Beth reluctantly followed him out of the door, not knowing what her next move would be.

Garrett led her to an area between the buildings and introduced her to a few of the women. He left Beth under a canopy with another younger woman, she was talking about her family to Beth, to which Beth wasn't even really paying attention to. She just ate the food as quickly as she could, scanning the area, trying to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon, any way that she could get out.

She rubbed the back of her head again, absentmindedly. She was trying everything she knew how to gather up the courage to run towards the fence. or to maybe grab the gun she saw tucked into the shirt of one of the guys who was clearly there to make sure she didn't go anywhere.

Out of nowhere she heard some sort of panic coming from the other direction, some yelling and a clear sound of weapons being prepared to be fired. She stood up, out of curiosity, walking towards the area. When she saw the situation in front of her, her breath caught in her throat and she froze instantly. She felt like she had just been turned into stone. Unable to breathe, unable to think, unable to move.

Right in front of her face was none other than Rick, Carl, and Michonne.

And Daryl.

Rick had a man she hadn't seen in a choke hold with a gun aimed straight at his temple. "Where did you get this watch?" He growled into the mans ear. She focused on the item in Ricks hand. She could identify that item anywhere.

It was her dad's watch.

It was Glenn's watch.

She knew that meant that Glenn had made it. At least to terminus. Which might mean that Maggie, Bob, and Sasha had too.

She didn't know what to think. Her mind was clouded. So many questions were being answered, but so many new questions were coming to the surface and her brain just didn't seem to be able to keep up with it. She watched in horror as she realized more than 15 guns were aimed in their direction, she didn't know what she was going to do, but she knew she had to do something. She thought maybe if she said something and got their attention, they'd know she was there and that she was alive.

She opened her mouth to speak, "Dar-" But just as she made a step forward, she was jerked back with a hand clamped over her mouth. "You make one move, you make one sound, I'll shoot all four of them where they stand, got me?" It was Garrett again, he had seen the look on her face as he rounded the corner. It was clear she had recognized the group that was causing chaos.

Beth nodded. He pushed her against the wall, "Stay." He growled, as he walked that way.

She shut her eyes, trying to make her brain focus only on her hearing. She tried to listen to the conversation, she knew that Rick was thinking the same thing about the watch, that either Glenn was here or he was dead and he wasn't going to let up until he got his answer.

"Got the riding gear off a dead cop. Got the poncho off the clothes line." She heard Garrett's voice say. She knew both of those items all too well. Especially the Poncho.

"Where are our people?" Rick demanded, his voice sounded angrier than she'd ever heard.

She held a hand over her mouth to cover the noise of her sobbing, she felt helpless.

Suddenly, she heard gunfire and panicked, pressing her back to the wall tightly. She let out a gasp, watching Daryl, Michonne, Carl and Rick turn a corner and run towards the opposite direction of her. She got a clear view of the back of each of them as they ran, gunfire missing their heels only by inches.

A hand grabbed her arm roughly and dragged her up a set of stairs, up to the roof of the building. "You're going to watch." He said in her ear as she got sight of what was in front of her. All four of them standing in the middle of the concreted area.

"You stand right here, you don't move." he barked at her. She realized now that all four of them were standing near a train car, one surrounded by guns.

"Drop your weapons!" She heard Garrett yell to them.

She was clearly out of sight, because if they had seen her she knew at least one of them would have said something by now. Every inch of her was shaking, she knew what was going to happen, and knew she was powerless to stop it.

"Alright, John, do it. Shoot them where they stand." Garrett said.

"Please!" She said, earning a glare from Garrett.

"I'll do anything you want, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, please just don't kill them." She whispered.

The men on the roof looked to Beth, then back to Garrett. He was angry and she knew she had been the reason for it. She couldn't just stand idly and watch them die. She watched as he walked back to the edge of the roof, and listened as he gave them detailed instructions on entering the train car she had seen. She breathed a sigh of relief, crying for what felt like the hundredth time in the past few days.

Garrett grabbed her yet again by the arm roughly, pulling her down the stairs and back down the musty hallway, practically throwing her into the room he had her chained in. She knew she was probably going to be beaten, raped, killed. Something.

"You're going to listen to me very, very carefully do you understand?" He said, inches away from her face. She turned her head sideways, trying to not feel his breath on her face. She didn't even want to look at him. "I know you know those people, I know you recognize the items he did. I could tell by the dumb ass look you had on your face" He yelled at her, grabbing her by the arm and shoving her back to the couch, chaining her ankle back to its original position.

He reached for her face and grabbed her chin tightly, causing blood to pool to the pressured area. "We saw you kill 6 walkers by yourself in the woods. We saw you escape situations that not many people we have known didn't. You would be an asset to us. You are an asset to us. So let me get one thing clear with you. Those people- are not your people anymore."

The look on Garret's face scared the hell out of her. She bit her lip hard, tasting the blood in her mouth after a few moments. If she refused, she'd die. Or worse, he would kill everyone she loved. She knew that for a fact.

"I want to see them." she managed to say, her voice cracking. He let go of her, walking towards the door leaving the room.

"Please!" She begged, tears flowing freely from her eyes. "I have to know if my sister is okay, I have to know if Judith-I have to know about.."

He turned to face her, looking her straight in the eyes.

"I need to know about Daryl."

**Dun Dun Dun ;)**

**So Beth got to terminus, hopefully not in the way you expected. I like to surprise you all.**

**It's going to get a little crazy next two chapters. Be patient with me. As you all know this is a Bethyl story, it might take a few chapters, but they'll see each other eventually.**

**Have a great weekend! I'll try and update again before the beginning of next week! Love y'all.**

**- Stephanie **


	6. Say Something

**So here it is! The chapter y'all have been waiting for! Don't be too harsh on me. This took a while to write out so that I could make it how I saw it happening in my head**.

* * *

Daryl's mind was on fire, burning hotter than a thousand suns. He couldn't quite tell if he was angry, or upset. If he was relieved, or if he was worried. The sound of his name coming off of Gareth's tounge was enough to send Daryl into a fit of rage, storming across the room walking in circles trying to comprehend what was even going on.

He rubbed the patch of skin just underneath his hairline on the back of his neck roughly, trying to think of the words to say to the man.

"She here?" Daryl finally said. It came out as more of a cry for help rather than an angry question by mistake. He couldn't help but be concerned with Beth's well- being. I mean shit, she was alive. She was actually alive, or so he thought.

The man nodded, "Asked for you, asked for her sister. Told her she could say her goodbyes." the man sat down in the chair across from him, arms draped loosely over the arms of the chair. Daryl stalked towards him quickly saying "You touch one hair on her head, I swear I'll-" Garrett stood up, cutting him off from continuing.

"Relax Romeo, what do I look like?" He said laughing at him, like what he had said was meant to be a joke. "The fuck's that supposed to mean?" Daryl yelled, flipping the chair over behind him with his foot. "It means the girl don't look a day over 16, not my forte." Daryl felt his skin crawl, the man's words yet again made Daryl's anger hit breaking point. he saw red again, not being able to think clearly or make any decisions clearly, so he reared back and smashed his fist into the mans nose, causing him to stumble backwards and hit the table on the way down, grunting loudly.

"She's nineteen you fucking prick! It ain't like that!" He yelled as garrett stood up, wiping the blood from his nostrils as the door opened. There were two armed men about to storm in when Garrett waved them away. "I got this, go." He said to them before they shut the door. Daryl didn't know why he had reacted that way towards Garrett's comment. He was so conflicted with his feelings for Beth.

"My apologies," He said laughing, continuing to wipe the blood with his shirt. "Anyway, she's with us now."

"The hell she is," He said gruffly, "Bring her in here." Garrett stood still, not moving a muscle.

"You say she's alive? Then bring her in here. Bring her in here right now!" Daryl yelled, jabbing his fingers into Garrett's chest.

"Don't get mad at me man, it's a deal she made with us. Only reason you're still living and breathing is because of that girl." Daryl stood within inches from the mans face, not faltering his facial expression for a second.

He knew Garrett was saying things just to piss him off and get a reaction out of him. He decided in that moment he wasn't going anywhere until he saw Beth. Wether that meant Garrett was going to kill him or not, it didn't matter. Not anymore.

After a long moment of staring at each other, garrett finally sighed and picked the chair up, setting it back into its original position. "Tell you what," Garrett began, walking towards the door. "I'll bring you to her. How does that sound?" Garrett opened the door for Daryl who walked through it quickly, bumping his shoulder purposly with force into one of the armed men guarding the door outside of it.

They walked down the hallway in complete silence for a moment, which Daryl was completely fine with. He'd rather the man keep his mouth shut. But halfway down the hall, he began to speak. "Well, the day before you four decided to show up and cause a huge scene, I had found something in the woods. Blonde girl, about this high" He said, gesturing to Beth's height. "Alone in the woods, following some signs painted by her crazy ass sister-"

"Don't talk about Maggie like that" Daryl snapped at him. Maggie and Daryl might not have the greatest relationship with each other at the moment, but that didn't mean he was going to let this snake like mother fucker talk about Maggie in that way, he didn't even know her.

Gareth laughed, "Anyway," He continued. "Saw that girl had some tracking skills, she was following footprints, catching signs of people being around, you know."

Daryl couldn't help the small smile that crept onto his face. He knew that him teaching her with the crossbow and training her on how to track worked and stuck in her head. When she had innitially got taken he hoped that she would remember.

It was only then that he came to realise what Gareth had said. "You found her in the woods? You didn't take her from the driveway?" When Daryl innitially found out that Beth was at terminus, he assumed he was the one who had taken her.

"Man sounds like you should keep a leash on that one." Garrett laughed and stopped at a door at the end of the hallway. He turned the lock on the door and Daryl held his breath.

As the door opened he could clearly see against the wall was a couch. On the couch was Beth, curled up in a ball sleeping soundly. She didn't even flinch at the sound of the door opening.

"Don't get too comfortable," Gareth said as Daryl took a step into the room "I'll be right back."

Daryl stood frozen in time, staring at her as she slept, noticing her intakes of breath, noticing the gentle rising and lowering of her chest. Noticing how her blonde hair wasn't tied up anymore, rather it was clean and sprawled out around her head.

The room was dark, the lights weren't on, but on a small table in the corner was a small candle, illuminating all that it could of the small room.

But the light he saw wasn't coming off of the candle, not by a long shot. It was as if the girl was an angel, a sight for sore eyes. The light at the end of the tunell. A flame in the darkness of the small room.

Daryl couldn't help but think the girl was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She looked so peaceful as she slept. Daryl stepped closer, slowly, trying his best not to wake her up.

He knelt down, and without even thinking he felt his own hand brush a peice of her hair out of her face. Right at that moment, he saw her face scrunch up a little bit. Her breathing picked up pace, and he had thought he had awaken her. She didn't wake up though, she mumbled a few words that Daryl couldn't make out as she shook her head back and forth lightly.

"Beth." He whispered, touching her shoulder. Beth again spoke, but this time it was loud and clear. "He's not here" She said, louder this time. He looked at her with confusion. What the hell did that mean?

"I have to find him," She said "I have to-" He was staring straight at her, trying his best to understand what was coming out of her mouth when her bright blue eyes shot open, filled with fear.

She didn't move, she didn't say anything at first. Her expression was straight disbelief. Her eyes adjusted to the lighting and she saw Daryl's face just inches away from her own. She was dreaming, having a dream of when she had searched the house with Father Gabriel.

"Beth," He said again, his grip on her shoulder tightened when he saw that her expression on her face still wasn't changing. She still looked afraid, staring at him as if he wasn't really there. But he was there. This was real. This wasn't a dream, she wasn't imagining things. He was kneeling before her very eyes.

"Say something." He said softly, desperately trying to shake her from her dazed and confused state that she was currently in. He didn't know what had been done to her or what had happened to her sense he had seen her last.

Her face softened at the sound of his voice, and she reached to touch his face with the ends of her fingertips but reached back the second her fingers made contact with his skin. "You're really here." She said, it almost like she was disappointed.

He shook the tone of her voice out of his head, it almost made him angry, but at that moment he couldn't be. "You alright? Did they hurt you?" He asked. She slowly sat up, moving over so he could sit there with her, but he stayed kneeling down by the couch.

She didn't really know how to answer the question he asked her. Although, there was the bump on the back of her head that had decreased in swelling, but that was about it.

"He knocked me out, I was trying to find this place. I didn't wanna go with him but, he gave me know choice. I was unconsious." She explained, rubbing the knot on the back of her head, squinting at the pain.

Daryl shook his head. "We can talk about this stuff later, I need to get you out of here, I'm not leaving you to the wolves- I don't know what these people have planned."

"I can't leave Daryl." She said quietly, earning herself a glare from Daryl.

"What do you mean you can't leave? I'm getting you outta here- your sister, rick everyone they-"

"I know they're here. I saw you guys when you first got here." She said, avoiding his gaze. He was confused, he didn't understand why she was being so cold.

"Beth," he said reassuringly. " I don't know what they said to you or what they did to you, I can't even begin to understand that but.." He trailed off, blinded by his confusion and concern. "But," he continued finally, "but you're one of us and I- I can't lose you again."

He finally looked at her and realized she was finally looking him in the eyes for the first time sense he had awaken her.

"I have to stay. They'll kill you Daryl. They'll kill everyone I love, this is the only way." Daryl looked to the ground, alarmed by her response. What could he say to that? He thought. But he wasn't going to let her off that easy.

"I don't even understand why he wants me here. He says he saw me kill a bunch of walkers but that makes no sense to me. That's why he wants me? That can't be true." She sounded depressed to Daryl, like she had lost every bit of hope Daryl had seen in her sense they got drunk at the house in the woods.

"He's gonna kill us anyway, Beth. They're not just gonna let us go." He told her, desperation in his voice. "Please, let me get you out of here, let me at least try. Let us at least try," he pleaded with her. He couldn't bear to think of moving on without her again, and he was sure that whatever bullshit Gareth had fed her had warped her mind. He couldn't leave her here. He wouldn't.

"There's too many, you'll get shot, you'll die Daryl. I wouldn't be able to live knowing that I was the reason you'd die. I want you to live, to see the good In life like I used to." He reached his hand out absentmindely, wiping a tear from her eyes, without even realizing it.

"I won't leave here until I know you're safe." He said sternly

"He said if I stay he'll let you go. He'll let a of you go. I'm one person, I can't sacrifice all of you for me." She said, another silent tear sliding down her cheek.

"Did you hear what I said?" Daryl said.

"I'm not leaving you here. Not again. Not ever."

* * *

**Im a total idiot idiot and thought that Gareth's name was Garett. So from now on ill correct myself, sorry for being stupid -_- **

**this this was hard for me, let me know what you think. Love y'all from sunny south Florida ! **


	7. One Of Us

**A/N: Thanks for the love y'all, as usual. You guys keep me going, you really do.**

* * *

"What's taking so long?" Rick asked aloud angrily as he paced back and forth in the darkness. Everyone else was asking their selves the same question, it had been at least an hour sense Daryl and Maggie had left.

"Probably shot 'em" Eugene said matter of factly, "These people give me the creeps, I'll say." He continued, standing there awkwardly. Rick didn't know how to understand Eugene fully. Abraham had given him the same spiel that he had given everyone else about how he had to protect Eugene because he had 'the cure' but Rick was skeptical, like he was about most things anyway.

Just as Rick was about to say something, the train car opened and in walked Maggie. Rick couldn't tell if her eyes were swollen from crying, or if her eyes were swollen from crying the night before. Nonetheless, he approached her slowly.

"What happened?" he asked, "Where's Daryl." Maggie choked back a sob that was arising in her throat. And looked around to all of the concerned eyes, seeing Glenn approaching her and holding her to him.

"I- I don't know where Daryl is. They separated us." she said quietly.

"Well, so much for food." Abraham said with a snarl. Rick shut his eyes momentarily, trying not to get angry but he couldn't help but yell at him. "Will you SHUT UP!" He yelled, earning no more than a turned back and a chuckle from Abraham.

"They-They have her. They have Beth." She said, tears stinging her eyes as the flowed freely down her face. "They said she's not coming back to us that, they're gonna let us go.. Only if she stays." Maggie felt her knees buckle, like she couldn't hold herself up any longer.

"They wouldn't even let me see her" She fell into Glenn's arms, barely making the words out because she was crying so hard. Catching her breath, she locked her arms around Glenn's neck, feeling every bit of sadness, relief, anger, and depression rock her to her core. She had never felt so lost before, even when she watched her father die in front of her eyes- She was powerless to stop what the governor had done to her father. But Beth was different, Beth was her baby sister, and she had gotten out despite the odds she was against.

"Hey," Rick said lightly, "We're not leaving here without her." he said reassuringly.

"Let me get this straight," Abraham interjected. Rick glared in his direction, knowing fully well what he was going to say. "We're going to risk everyone's lives here... For one little girl?"

"She's one of us." Rick growled, getting in his face yet again. He was tired of his nasty attitude, always feeling like he had something to say.

"That's where you're wrong." Abraham said, "She's one of you guys." He pointed at the rest of the group besides himself, Eugene and Rosita. "And I'll be damned if you think I'm going to risk their lives for one little girl who didn't have enough sense to stick with the group."

Rick stepped even closer, inches away from Abraham's face.

"You think I care if you're with us or not? We got this far without you, we don't need you." He said turning around to walk back to Maggie.

"Actually, Romeo and Juliet over there wouldn't have made it here if it weren't for us. Actually I recall saving that guys damn life!" He yelled, pointing at Glenn, clearly referring to when Rosita, Tara, Maggie, Bob, Sasha, Eugene and himself shot all the walkers in the tunnel. Rick ignored him, trying his best to keep his cool.

"You're not just going to let him talk to you like that, are you?" He looked to his left seeing Carl glancing up at him. Rick looked to the ceiling, trying his best to think of something to say to him to get him to understand.

"Carl," He began, kneeling to him eye line. "Abraham and I, fighting, isn't going to solve anything. You know that." Carl merely rolled his eyes and stormed back to Michonne with a huff. Rick knew that face all to well, whenever Carl didn't agree with something that he did or he was saying. he almost felt like the child when Carl looked at him like that, he couldn't help but get frustrated with him sometimes.

He walked over and sat down next to Michonne, Carl avoiding his stare. "We gotta figure something out- How we're gonna do this." Rick said to Michonne. Michonne stared forward thinking for a moment.

"There's no way these people are just gonna let us walk out of here - whether that girl comes with us or stays. " Rick ducked his head down, he knew that she was right.

"We have to think of a plan." Michonne continued. He knew she was right, but for the first time in a long time, Rick didn't have a plan.

* * *

"You listen to me girl," Daryl said, scooting over so she had no choice but to look him in the eyes. "I need you ready to fight, I need you ready to get out of here and I need you safe. I can't not have you with us- you're one of us you understand me?"

"Daryl, I'm not going to be the reason you die." She argued. "Last man standing, remember?" She laughed, but he could see the pain in her eyes.

"I thought you were dead, Beth. And I blame myself for it every damn day I-" She opened her mouth to interrupt him but he cut her right off. "No, I don't wanna hear it." He said to her. "I'm giving you clear instructions Beth, don't make me get angry with you." He said.

Beth stared at him for a long time, knowing there was no change in his mind. She desperately wanted to leave, wanted to be with everyone.

"Judith?" Beth asked quietly, clearly wanting to know if she was okay. "I don't know." Daryl replied, looking to the ground as he spoke. Beth opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the door opening again, Gareth standing there with a smirk upon his lips.

"Time's up," He said clapping his hands together and rubbing them. "Let's go." He said, looking to Daryl sternly. Daryl turned his attention back to Beth. "Remember what I said, ya hear me?" He said strongly. His face though to Beth looked sad, like he had lost something special to him. She remembered that look from when he returned after he had lost his brother Merle. He reached and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear before he stood to his feet and walked towards the door. Gareth stepped out of the door and towards the hallway.

Before Daryl shut the door he looked back into the room, seeing Beth's bright blue vibrant eyes staring at him mercilessly. He dropped his gaze, shutting the door behind him before following after Gareth, back to the train car.

"What did she have to say?" Gareth asked over his shoulder to Daryl who was following behind him. "None of your damn business, that's what." Daryl replied icily.

Gareth seemed to be entertained every time he asked Daryl a question and Daryl replied with a smart ass remark. He always either smiled or laughed at him, making Daryl's blood boil. When he had turned around to ask Daryl the question, Daryl couldn't help but smile either, catching a glimpse of the dried blood underneath the crevices of his nose. Daryl inwardly congratulated himself on the blow to Gareth's nose, knowing it was going to bruise.

When they got back to the train car, Daryl started to walk up the steps. Gareth grabbed his arm to get his attention. "I'm a man of my word you know," He began, looking at Daryl in the eyes. "Tomorrow night, you will be let out of here. All of you. Except her, she stays." Daryl jerked his arm out of his grasp as the train car door was opened by one of the armed men. He walked inside, relieved when he saw that Maggie was back in the train car. She ironically was the first one to run up to him, she hadn't so much as given him a glance after the fight they had the first day in the train car.

"Did you see her?" Maggie asked desperately. Her eyes were red and swollen again. He knew she'd been crying.

"Yeah, I saw 'er. Not for long though." Maggie almost looked disappointed. He was under the impression that Maggie had gotten the chance to see Beth as well, so he was confused by her reaction.

She took a deep breath. "Is she alright? Is she okay?" She asked, concern laced in her voice. Daryl nodded, he knew she was okay physically from what he said, but he wasn't so sure about what state her mind was in.

"Rick." Daryl said, walking towards him. He was still sitting next to Michonne, but he stood up when Daryl called his name. "They said they're letting us out tomorrow night." Rick nodded, and walked towards the rest of the group, but Daryl grabbed him by the arm stopping him. "I ain't leaving here without her" He said, making his motives perfectly clear to Rick. Rick nodded again, "Good, cause neither are we." He gave Daryl a quick pat on his shoulder before walking to the center of the train car.

"Alright listen up." He said, trying to keep his voice as low as possible, not knowing if the people outside of the train car were listening or not.

"I'm saying this one time, and one time only." He said, looking at everyone making sure that he had their attention. "If any of you were in Beth's position, we'd all do the same for you - that's a fact. You all know that." Rick looked to Daryl, trying to make sure that he was giving the situation enough justice, but Daryl seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, looking at the ground. Rick wasn't even sure if he was paying attention or not.

"We aren't just going to be let out of here- Beth or no Beth. You all honestly think they're just gonna let us stroll on out of here? You all are smarter than that." He said, staring at Abraham in the eyes when he said the last sentence, knowing it was directed at him because of the conversation they had earlier. "Daryl knows where she is. He knows where they have her held up - tomorrow night, we're getting out of here. We're going to stick together and we're going to fight. Don't think this is just about Beth - Cause it's not. We have to save ourselves too. We weren't going to just be let out of here unscathed. You all know that!" he said desperately. The truth in his words hit everyone in the train car like a 3 ton truck. Everyone wanted to think they were just going to walk away, but the reality of it was, that wasn't a reality at all.

"How are we supposed to do this without weapons?" Sasha said finally, breaking the silence that had fell after Rick started speaking. Rick ran a hand through his hair, looking at her with concern. "I don't know, Sasha. We're gonna have to figure it out." Abraham laughed, throwing his head back before looking at rick directly.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?" He growled loudly, "How the hell do you expect to fight these people!" He asked incredulously. Glenn looked at him "Lower your voice!" He yelled in a hushed tone. Rick stalked over to him yet again.

"You wanna just walk outta here? You think you're just gonna walk back out those gates you walked through and they're just gonna LET you leave?" He said with anger all but coming out of him in any way that it could. Abraham stepped back, "They packed us in a god damn Train car for gods sakes!" Rick said again, walking around in what seemed like circles again, not knowing what he could say to Abraham to get him to understand.

"I have one concern," Abraham began before getting cut off by Rick "Yeah we know, we know, Mr. I have all the answers and the key to saving mankind. Trouble is, guy won't even say a damn thing about it! With his confidentiality bullshit, no." Rick got in his face again, this time, Abraham seemed intimidated. "I don't give a damn about you, or the girl, or your little science guru over there. Not my concern. You wanna try and walk away, and just go free. Be my guest. Let's see how far you get." He said before walking back to his area that he had been sitting in in the train car, needing to calm down.

Rick was lost in his thoughts, trying everything he knew how to to get the redness out of his vision. Abraham got under his skin worse than many people could, he knew fighting the man wouldn't solve a damn thing, he was just going to have to ignore him. Rick's thoughts were interrupted by Carl, who sat down next to him.

"Dad?" He asked. "Yes, Carl." He replied, staring at the top of the train car, not looking at him, or paying attention fully. He couldn't seem to stop being angry in that moment.

"We have a weapon." Carl said. Rick laughed, "Carl, no we-" Rick lost his voice when he looked at Carl and saw what he was holding. A knife with a blade at least six inches long.

"Carl, how did you-"

"Hid it in the back of my pants." He said, sounding proud of himself.

"Thought he was going to feel it but he didn't." He said. Rick nudged Carl in the shoulder. "Remind me so much of your mom sometimes, son." He said, earning somewhat of a smile from Carl. He looked at Carl for a while, "You know, you look more and more like her everyday." Color rose to Carl's cheeks. "Yeah, be nice if I could see myself in a mirror, see it for myself." Rick smiled. He missed Lori so much, and knew Carl did too.

"We're gonna save her right dad?" Carl said to Rick, trying to receive some confirmation from him about her getting back safe. "Daryl's gonna find her." Rick said, You and I getting out of here, is my main concern. - But, once I know we can get out of here safe." Rick said as he eased the knife out of Carl's hand "We're gonna make sure everyone is gonna get out as well, Beth included."

Carl nodded his head in understanding, but Rick knew that wasn't the exact answer he wanted to hear.

* * *

Daryl had been listening to the conversation between Rick and Carl as he lied his head back on his hands on the floor. Sleep overcame him quickly, and the dream he was having was so vivid, it was almost as if it wasn't a dream, almost as if it was real.

He was in the woods, walking through the trees when he had stumbled across a small girl, curled up in a ball sleeping next to a small fire.

It was Beth.

"Beth," He said, touching her shoulder. She didn't move at all. Daryl began to panic.

"Beth, Beth! Beth!" He said, finally getting her to roll over, but much to his horror, she wasn't in good condition. It was almost as if he had seen it before, his mind remembering when Rick and himself had found Andrea with a huge walker bite on the curve of her neck. Blood seeping from it profusely.

Beth bared the same exact wound on the same exact spot, bleeding onto the little yellow shirt she was wearing when he had lost her.

She sat up slowly, some of her matted blonde hair sticking to the blood on the wound on her neck.

"You're too late." She said, staring at him with tear filled eyes. Daryl grabbed her shoulders, "No. No. No No." He said, fighting back tears as he scooped her up into his arms. "Beth, stay with me. Please." He begged. She looked up at him with tear filled eyes, making the blue in them shine brighter than ever before. "You should have stayed. You should have looked harder. Maybe this wouldn't have happened." She said helplessly, her voice fading slowly as her eyes started to flutter shut.

"Beth!" he yelled. "Beth, please!" he yelled again. The world around him fading to black, seeing nothing but the lifeless Beth Greene in his arms. "Beth, no." He said with a whisper, noticing her breathing had stopped and her head lulled backwards. he heard something in the distance, almost as if his name was being called.

"Daryl." the voice said,

"Daryl." It repeated louder this time until he was jerked from his dream and back to reality.

He was Seeing nothing at first until the brown eyes of Maggie Greene came into focus, kneeling before him looking utterly confused.

Daryl leaned onto his elbows after her rubbed his eyes with his fist, trying to wake himself up and trying to shake off the feeling that the dream gave him. He felt like he had just lost a piece of his heart, even though It was just a dream. "You were talking in your sleep." Maggie said quietly, not averting her eyes from his.

"What was I saying?" He asked, but he was pretty sure he already knew. He could tell by the look on Maggie's face, he was ready for her to punch him in the head.

But much to Daryl's surprise, she didn't.

"You were saying her name, over and over and over again." She said, furrowing her eyebrows as if she was trying to understand why he was saying her name. "Bad dream." he murmured, lifting one arm to chew on his fingertips. A nasty habit he couldn't seem to kick no matter how hard he tried to do so.

He didn't understand why he was so shaken by the dream. He didn't understand why he had even had the dream, he knew she was alright - he had just seen her not even 24 hours ago.

"I wanted to apologize." She said, avoiding looking him in the eye this time. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that when you got here- It wasn't right of me." She said, fiddling with the zipper on the pocket of her jeans. Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "s'alright, you were worried." he replied. But he wasn't being completely honest. He really still didn't understand why she hadn't been looking for Beth. It quite frankly pissed him off.

"I wanted to thank you, for keeping her safe when you were with her." She said. Looking at him finally.

"Don't thank me, I lost her." He replied gruffly.

"You did more than I did." She said softly. standing up and walking back to Glenn on the opposite side of the train car. Daryl sat up and put his face in his hands. Between the dream and the conversation he had just had with Maggie Greene, he was frustrated. Not to mention, Not knowing what time of day or night it was - was starting to become extremely frustrating as well.

He knew it was just a matter of hours before the people came into the car to get them out, he didn't know what he was going to do, or how he was going to do it. All he knew was he had to get Beth out of there safe, without anybody getting hurt.

He leaned himself back, trying to sleep again. Trying not to think about tomorrow, or the haunting baby blue sparkling eyes of Beth Greene.

* * *

**Next chapter is going to be long- and brutal. There will be bloodshed, there will be some nasty language among other things. It may take me a few days, but I won't post it unless I'm completely satisfied with it, and that's for y'alls benefit. In the meantime, be patient with me. Love y'all more than you'll ever know **

**-Stephanie**


	8. The End of The Line

**congratulations! You guys have officially taken over my life considering I got nothing done at work today because I sat for 4 hours writing this.**

**i hope I did this justice. It feels right to me.**

**As always, thank you for your support. I love you all.**

**-Stephanie **

* * *

"twinkie's." Carl said, laughing.

"Twinkie's? Really?" Michonne smiled, they had been talking about the foods that they missed for at least the past hour. "How about... Pop tarts. Used to love those things as a kid."

"Seriously?" Carl said with a squeak. "Those things aren't that good, only the middle. The edges of it are disgusting." Michonne laughed again, lightly shoving Carl's shoulder. The hungrier they were, the more they seemed to not be able to stop talking about food.

"Okay, okay, I got one." Carl said, shifting his legs to face Michonne. "You know those TV Dinners, like with the chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs?" Michonne stared at him, and cocked an eyebrow. "Seriously?" she said, mocking him with a laugh she couldn't control. "Of all the different foods you could choose from? That stuff is gross."

"How would you know?" Carl asked smiling. "Andre," Michonne replied, smiling at the memory of her little boy. "When we were short on money, we would share those things. can't beat a two dollar dinner." She said laughing. She missed that little boy more than anything in the world. Having Carl around made her feel like a mother again, like she had someone to protect, someone to love as her own even if he wasn't blood.

"Can you two stop it please!" Glenn groaned from a few feet away, his head resting on Maggie's lap. "I swear if you guys don't stop I'm going to pretend my hand is a sandwich and eat it. My stomach is eating itself." Carl and Michonne couldn't help the laugh that came out of their mouths, this was the first time they had been able to think or talk about something simple - Food. Rather than thinking about how they were going to survive, or get out, or save Beth.

"It's getting dark out." Michonne observed aloud to Rick, who was sitting on the floor next to her and carl. "Yeah, anytime now their gonna come in here." He replied in a low tone, not wanting to get anyone in an uproar or cause concern.

"Yesterday, when Daryl got back Carl showed me this." Rick said to Michonne as he pulled out the knife that Carl had snuck in from the inside of his jacket. Michonne's eyes widened, realizing the blade was at least 6 inches long. "How'd he get that in here?" She said, looking to Carl first then back to Rick. Carl had a huge grin on his face, clearly proud of what he had accomplished.

"He's smart, smarter than I would have been at his age that's for sure." Rick said with a laugh.

"Alright so, we have one knife." Michonne said, almost sounding defeated. "Hey, it's better than no knife at all." Rick replied, holding the blade in front of him examining it.

"How are we going to do this, Rick?" Michonne asked, desperation clear in her voice. She didn't know how this was going to work, the people of Terminus had plenty of armed men, and they had plenty of unarmed men. It was a little unnerving.

"I don't know yet, you're just going to have to follow my lead." He said, unsure of what was to come next.

He knew he'd give his life for Carl - that wasn't a question at all. But it was coming to a head at this point. He wasn't sure of how it was going to play out - he didn't even know why they were in the train car in the first place. If they wanted them all dead if they served no purpose, they could have easily just killed all of them, Rick, Michonne, Daryl and Carl included. But they didn't. That was the unknown that was eating Rick alive. He didn't know what they wanted from them in the first place, before Beth was even in the picture, and that made him severly uneasy.

Meanwhile, Daryl seemed to tense up as Maggie approached him again, Glenn following in suit behind him. "When you go after her, I want to go with you." She said to Daryl. It was more of a demand rather than a request - Daryl could tell that by the tone of her voice when she opened her mouth.

"Don't want you to get lost Maggie, it's probably best I get her out of there myself. By myself. Don't take that the wrong way." Maggie scruched her face a little. "I won't be in the way, I can help you." She tried to assure him, make him let her try to help. Daryl just saw her causing more of a chaos than anything, that she wouldn't be that big of a help at all and that in fact she would get in the way.

"Maggie- Let me handle this." Daryl said, more assertive this time. Maggie mumbled some words under her breath, stalking back towards her area of the train car when the door was slid open with the loud creaking and scratching noise everyone was all too farmiliar with.

In the door was three figures, one being Gareth, Daryl recognized that immidiately. But the other two he didn't recognize at all. They were tall, really tall. Taller than everyone else in the room. It wasn't too dark outside he noticed, like the sun had just set maybe an hour ago.

They walked into the room and stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the door in some sort of a formation. Everyone in the train car got to their feet and closed the space between each other, coming together as a group as best as they could, while the eyes of the men never faltered.

Rick was standing behind daryl, with Michonne and carl on either side of him. "Follow my lead." Rick said into his ear, to which Daryl didn't make a move, he didn't want to alarm the men in front of him or give them a reason to not think they weren't going to obey the words that he had said.

Gareth walked forward, seperating all of them into 3 different groups in a straight line. The first group consisted of Daryl, Rick, Sasha and Bob. The second being Abraham and Eugene alone. The third being Maggie, Carl, Glenn and Rosita. When Tara was singled out, everyone could see the panic in her eyes, she was petrified, not seeiming to understand why she wasn't at least put in one of the lines.

Group by group, they were instructed to go out of the train car and stand in the same formation they were designated in. Out of fear of what was going to happen to Tara, Glenn spoke up. The girl had done everything she could have done to help Glenn find maggie, she even put her life on the line all but sacrificing herself in order to make sure that Glenn lived on to see his wife again. "What about her?" Glenn asked Gareth desperately. Gareth turned to face Glenn and didn't answer him, just gave him a look and kept walking.

They found themselves standing in three seperate single file lines in the area that Daryl, Michonne, Carl and Rick had found themselves cornered in. Rick had observed the outside area, seeing guns pointed at them from the rooftops, from the outsides of the fences, right in front of them on the ground. They were yet again, completely surrounded.

Gareth stood in front of everyone, examining facial expressions, examining every single person in front of him intently, his eyes looked demonic, a smile played on his lips as he walked around. The two other men were standing off to the right, one had Tara by the arm who was crying silently.

"Ring leader." Gareth said, everyone turned their heads to look at Rick, knowing that was who the comment was directed at.

"Let me ask you something," Gareth continued, walking down the lines to get his face near Rick's. "Are you scared, Ring Leader?" Rick looked to Gareth out of the corner of his eyes, trying his best not to snap right then and there, it wasn't the right time yet.

"I told your friend here," He said, walking back to the front of the line now adressing his commentary to everyone in the group. "You know, Daryl." He said, gesturing his hand into Daryl's direction. His blood was humming through his veins violently, he was scared, he was angry, he was determined. He hated Gareth with every single bone in his body, it took everything he had not to jump on him right then and there.

"I told Daryl we don't trust outsiders here. Here, we take absolutely no chances." He said, pacing back and forth slowly, watching everyone intently. "And your friend decided to ask us, why we have signs up, why we practically want people to come in here."

"And you know what Daryl, that's a great question." He said, getting within inches of Daryl's face, he was close enough that Daryl could feel his breath on his neck.

"The answer is this- Terminus is a sanctuary. Our sanctuary. A place we rarely go out into the open for. That's why we have you all come here."

The look on everyone's face was confusion. Nobody knew what the hell that even meant.

"Let's get one thing clear. You all- you're not leaving." everyone's demenor changed, especially Tara.

"If You don't let us go, she's going to know that." Daryl said, clearly referring to beth.

"That's the thing," Gareth said, not even looking at daryl. "She won't even know the difference."

"We don't feel the need to go out and scavenge for food, for us to risk our lives out in the open of this world to hunt down animals to eat. Why would we do that, when we have you?"

"Jesus H. Christ" Eugene said outloud. Knowing what he was saying without coming outright and saying it.

"Dad?" Carl said, terrified. It was clear to everyone what was going on, why they were locked in a train car and why they were lured there under false pretenses.

"Cannibals." Abraham said, looking up to the sky. "God help us." He said looking to Rick for the first time sense their verbal altercation. The look they exchanged was clear now that differences aside, they were in this together no matter what the outcome.

Tara began to shake, trying to free herself from the grip on the man who had his hand clasped around her arm. "No! No! You can't do this!" she yelled pulling as hard as she could to try and get herself free.

"This one," Garrett said. "This one looks weak. So we figured, we'd give her a shot first." He said grinning. He signaled his hands towards one of the hallways as the two men dragged Tara by her arms, kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs trying to get free.

"Don't do this." Rick said, the same anger he had felt when he attacked Joe from the claimers was coming back, the most terrifying anger creeping through him at an alarming rate.

Garrett walked over to Rick, staring at him for a while before speaking. "This is the end of the line for you, get it?" He laughed in his ear purposley trying to piss him off. Rick couldn't even think straight when he reached through his jacket and pulled the knife out of his jacket, grabbing Gareth by the hair and plunging the knife into his throat while the words "RUN!" came out of his mouth, everyone scrambling in the direction of the front gate, as they avoided gunfire.

Rick felt a searing pain in his right arm realizing he had been shot as he let Gareth's body slide to the ground, pulling the knife out of the mans neck, blood pouring all over the concrete.

He ran for cover behind some sort of container, which he came to realize was holding people as well. He grabbed the latch and yanked it open. "Come on! Get out! Run!" he yelled to the people inside before taking off.

During the chaos, Maggie suffered a wound to the stomach, a clear gunshot that went through and through. Glenn scooped her up, running as fast as he could with Maggie in his arms howling in pain, trying as hard as he could to get her to the front gate.

Daryl managed to knock one of the guys carrying tara by the arm, taking his gun and knocking the end of the gun into the back of the other man's head, rendering him unconsious. Tara didn't even think to thank him, she just took off running as fast as she could as Daryl headed for the hallway.

He ran down the smoke ridden hallway faster than he ever did before, scanning each and every door in the hallway, knowing the one Beth had been in was all the way at the end. The hallway seemed to be getting longer, his mind playing tricks on him. He finally arrived at the door and realized it was locked, taking every single force in him he tried to push the door a few times, before rearing back and kicking the door open with his right foot, knocking the lock off of it's hinges and the door swinging open smashing the wall as it swung open.

Beth jerked up from her position on the couch as he yelled to her, "Beth! Come on let's go!" He yelled, but she didn't move. He began to get frustrated, and ran over to her. "We don't have time for this, get moving!" He yelled, grabbing her by the arm, only to hear a clanking metal noise coming from her feet. He moved the blanket, realizing that she was chained to the wall just behind the couch. "Shit!" he yelled standing up.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" he yelled again, so angry that this little factor was left un noticed. "The key beth! The key where is it?" He yelled frantically. She started to get flustered, not knowing what to say before Daryl grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her back to get her focus. "Beth. Where. Is. The. Key." He said, trying not to frighten her any more than he knew he already had. "

Gareth" She finally breathed out "Gareth has it, it's attached to his belt loop. I'm sorry I should have said something I just forgot I-" Daryl was furious - he couldn't help it. Something like this was something she should have let him know about.

"Beth?!" He heard a voice from the door, it was Carl. Daryl rushed over to Carl, grabbing him by the shoulders just as he had a few minutes ago. He wasn't sure how Carl had found this area, he assumed he had follwed him down the hallway. He noticed he had somehow gotten a gun that he held in his right hand.

"Listen to me Carl," Daryl said. "You stay here, I have to get a key to get her out of here, you make sure nothing happens to her, got me?!" Carl nodded and Daryl bolted out the door, back down the hallway and out to the open again.

He stood for a moment, scanning the area where Rick had stabbed Gareth, seeing his body lying in a pool of blood in the darkness. He ran over to his body, ripping the clip from his belt loop before running back towards the hallway, shooting his gun in the meantime in the direction of gunfire that was threateningly close to his heels.

He ran down the hallway, back through the door, and unlocked the chain around Beth's ankle, grabbing her by the hand. "We gotta run, Beth." He said, all but dragging her out the door with Carl running behind them gun raised in the air.

Beth felt the outside air for the first time in a few days, the grip Daryl had on her hand was making her lose circulation at that point, but she was so petrified and confused with all the comotion she didn't seem to notice it.

They ran through the gate and out to the open, pushing through the woods, running into the group who had somehow managed to get away as well. Beth bent over, trying to catch her breath, trying to process everything that had just happened, when a noise tore her from her heaving.

It was a groan, at first she had thought it was a walker, but when her eyes locked on the source of the noise, she felt every bone in her body go stiff.

Everyone was surrounding her, it was none other than her sister Maggie, cradled in the arms of Glenn as he cried silently. Beth pushed through everyone, managing to be able to kneel next to her sister putting Maggie's face in her hands and getting her to look at her.

"Maggie." Beth said desperately, tears springing to her eyes as she realized that Maggie was bleeding through the stomach. She had been coughing up blood, the bullett wound had peirced through her stomach.

"Beth." Maggie managed to choke out through a smile. "Beth, look at you." she said in a cracked voice.

"It's me Maggie, it's me I'm here."

"Beth, Beth I'm so sorry I didn't look for you." She said, tears falling out of her eyes at a rapid rate. She started coughing again, blood coming up her windpipe and dripping out the sides of her lips.

"No, no shhh please Maggie, stay with me." Beth pleaded through her sobbing. Maggie reached a cold hand up to touch Beth's cheek. Beth leaned into her hand, a tear escaping and falling into her hand.

"You don't cry for me, bethy, don't you dare." She demanded through her pained state.

"I never gave you enough credit. You're so strong, beth. You're so strong." She said between gasps for air and coughing.

Beth felt her throat constrict, realizing that the wound in Maggie's abdomen was fatal. She looked to Glenn who gave her the most pained look she had ever seen him have before focusing back to Maggie.

"I can't do this without you." Beth whispered, continuing to cry into Maggie's hand.

"You can." She said hoarsely. "And you will." Maggie looked beyond Beth's head to daryl who stood a few inches behind beth, trying to take in the last twenty minutes that had past. He locked eyes with Maggie.

"Daryl, you take care of her." Maggie said as loud as she could, recoiling in Glenn's arms forward due to the pain as she let out a painful cry, beth started to sob harder, taking one hand and placing it on top of Maggie's that was still pressed to her face. Daryl nodded, knowing that even if Maggie hadn't asked him to, he was never going to let beth disappear again.

"No you say it," Maggie said, "take care of her, do what I couldn't do." Daryl knelt next to beth so he could look at Maggie in the eyes. "I promise, I'll take care of her." Daryl placed a hand on Beth's back as Maggie fixed her eyes back on Beth's.

"I love you, beth. You do this, you survive - I know you can. Do it for daddy. Do it for me." She said. Beth nodded her head, squeezing her eyes to free herself of the blindness caused by the tears. She watched Maggie's eyes flutter for a moment until they closed. Crying harder and harder in unison with Glenn and a few others surrounding them.

Glenn stood up, and walked a few feet to a large rock and laid Maggie's body down so her head rested against it. Beth, who was still on her knees started crying hysterically, leaning into daryl who held her immediately to him. Glenn pulled the knife out of ricks hands without a word, walking back over to Maggie's body, everyone was well aware of what came next.

"Don't watch, beth. Don't look." Daryl said to her, her sobbing being somewhat muffled by her being pressed against him.

Glenn looked to Maggie, caressing her face with the end of his thumb across her cheekbone. He kissed her forehead and whispered into her ear.

"Maggie, I love you." Were the last words said before Glenn pressed the knife into Maggie's skull.


	9. You Got Me

**A/N: Hello again! Nothing too important, but if you're looking for some very adorable Bethyl fluff, this is the chapter for you.**

**Also - question for those of you who have mentioned helping me by being a beta for this story, please message me if you are any good with smut.. cause I'm not. And I need help :(**

**As always you guys are so good to me, really. And I'm sorry for those of you who for some reason were EXTREMELY pissed off at me for killing off Maggie. The good thing to remember is this - **

**it's FAN FICTION. **

**Meaning, it didn't necessarily occur. **

**Always keep that in mind.**

**Love y'all.**

**-Stephanie**

* * *

It had been three days sense the incident and escape at Terminus, but in Beth's mind it felt like it had happened just yesterday. Trucking through the woods with everyone in the group, Beth remained mostly silent, as did Glenn. Nobody dared to speak to them directly, at least just yet, nobody knew exactly what to say or what they could say. The last thing they wanted was to disturb someone who was grieving, setting them off wouldn't be a good idea for anyone in the group, especially now that they were out in the open. Although the threat at terminus was in the past, the threat of being attacked by walkers was the prominent problem in their minds. Especially because of the sounds of gunfire that had been heard probably all across the city that terminus was located in, it only had drawn more in their direction.

Glenn had carried Maggie's body quite a distance before they had stumbled across some sort of warehouse that had managed to somehow not be cleared of all of the tools that it carried. Inside, Daryl had managed to find a few shovels, along with some other things that he figured might be useful at some point in the near future. He handed one to Glenn who took it without saying a word, and offered one to Beth as well. Daryl had tried to help them, but Beth had given him a look that he understood, that Beth and Glenn were the ones that needed to dig her grave, because they were the closest people to her. Daryl understood that.

After Maggie's burial, Rick had indicated that he knew that they had to be somewhere in the vicinity of the city of Macon Georgia. He had come there with Lori and Carl when Carl was very young for a family vacation in a cabin by a creek in that area, he recognized a convenience store that they had stopped at during some point of their vacation. They, as always, followed Rick's lead, occasionally heading out of the woods to the railroad tracks, running into a few people along the way where they had warned them not to head to the Terminus location while they also did their best to take down the signs they saw.

When they came across what looked like an abandoned strip mall which included four stores, one being some sort of furniture store, Rick jumped at the opportunity. He took Daryl, Abraham, Glenn, Sasha and Bob to make sure it was clear. When the first walker appeared in the middle of the store, Glenn pushed past everyone with his crowbar from the warehouse, driving the crowbar through the skull of the walker with angry force pushing it to the ground. The others simply waited for Glenn's tirade to subside and watched as he repeatedly smashed the skull of the walker over and over again with tears welling into his eyes. Taking out his sadness, anger and frustration on the lifeless body continuously until he was out of strength. Once the store was cleared, they barricaded the door and shut all of the blinds after filing everyone into the store.

On the way to the location they had ransacked the convenience store, taking all of the food they could find. Living on bags of chips and a few assorted canned goods was going to have to do, in addition to some of the jugs of water that they had found. Everyone filtered to their own areas, trying to stay together to some degree. Beth had found a bed a little larger than a twin size towards the back of the building and settled herself. She couldn't remember the last time she was able to lay on a bed besides the cot in the prison cell she had claimed as her own. It was a pillow top, probably like the one she had at home, but she couldn't seem to remember what her old bed even felt like anymore.

She lied on her side, slowly tracing the bare mattresses stitching in silence, hearing the low murmurs of the others talking about rationing food, and who was going to sleep where, what the people of terminus had said to them, along with some other things she couldn't make out. But truth be told, she wasn't even really paying that much attention to what they were saying. She zoned out, not really thinking about anything at all for the first time in a while. Her mind was somewhat at ease, it was a strange feeling.

"Hey." A low voice caused her to look up, seeing Daryl stand by the edge of the bed, crossbow strung across his back. She cocked her head a little. "your crossbow. You found it?" She asked him. He smiled and looked towards the direction of Rick who was talking to Eugene and Abraham out of earshot. Ricks right arm was bandaged up, luckily the gunshot he suffered was a through and through shot, it would heal just fine.

"Thanks to the one and only Rick Grimes." he said, a small smile playing on his lips. "Guess he saw someone with it and knocked 'em out. Knew I would miss the thing." He smiled, wrapping his fingers around the strap as he spoke.

Beth laughed lightly for the first time in a few days. She sat up on the bed and scooted over, Daryl took it as an invitation and sat on the edge of the bed, leaving one leg hanging off of it.

"You okay?" Beth's question surprised Daryl. The fact that she was asking him if she was okay, rather than the other way around. The question reminded him instantly of when he had to tell her that Zach had died during the run to the Big Spot. Same bright blue beautiful eyes, same small smile. That was the first time he ever felt Beth express some kind of Physical action towards him, he remembered feeling his body stiffen at first, not sure how to react to the gesture.

"I'm okay, are you okay?" He said, looking her in the eyes, trying to read any signs of fear in them. For some reason, he didn't see anything other than calmness. Or maybe it was happiness. But it couldn't have been happiness, he thought, she just watched her sister die for gods sake. She smiled a little, bringing her knees up to her chest, bearing her thighs to his sight. It was only then when he realized she had changed her clothes. Blue jean cut off shorts, and a teal tank top with lace straps. It was strange, the clothes were clean, a little too small for her and looked brand new. She nodded slightly, and then must have realized the confused look on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked him. He shook his head and laughed a little bit at himself. _Distracted by your legs, that's all_. He thought.

"Nothing, you changed your clothes." he finally said out loud, swallowing the lump in his throat. She looked confused for a second, before looking down to examine her outfit. She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, he gave them to me. Made me wear this. Said my clothes were dirty and he'd wash them and bring them back but that never happened." He saw her demeanor change in that instant. It puzzled him, not knowing why her saying that to him made her feel not at ease.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" He finally said after a long silence between the two. "I know that." She said, looking at the stitching again, tracing the outline with her fingers. Her hair was still loose, draping over her shoulders and covering part of her face. He watched her as she changed her focus to her ankle, this time tracing the sore that the cuff around her ankle at Terminus had created. He reached out and touched it for some reason he didn't even understand, tracing his finger over the raised red line circling her ankle. It was a stark contrast to her milky white skin tone on every other part of her body. He looked up to find her eyes looking at his own, startling him for a moment. The girls eyes were boring into him, almost as if her eyes could see into his soul, read every single thought, emotion, and feeling he'd ever had. And that scared him more than anything.

They hadn't even talked about it yet, what happened to her at least. They had talked about terminus briefly, explaining the situation completely from what Gareth had said to him. Beth hadn't eaten sense the conversation, she was instantly repulsed at the memory of eating under the canopy with one of the women. She couldn't say for sure, but she had a sickening feeling that she was fed another human being. The sight of any other food made her sick to her stomach.

"Are you gonna tell me what happened that night?" Daryl asked, sounding more like Hershel than anything. As if he already didn't feel uncomfortable while he was coming to terms with his feelings for Beth, he was sounding like her father when he talked to her. He tried his best to get the thought out of his mind when she finally replied to him, leaning back onto the wall that the bed was pushed up against.

"I got as far as the driveway when someone knocked me out." She said, fiddling with her bracelets, keeping her hands busy all the time. "I woke up in the backseat of a car, in a garage." She continued, looking up to see the concerned look on his face. He scanned her body for bruises, marks, sores, anything, but came up empty. "He was a preacher. Knocked me so hard on the back of the head I went unconscious. Said he was trying to help me, the place we were in-it was his." She continued, trying to get him to relax. She could tell he was still waiting for her to say something else about it, the concern evident in his eyes, almost a pained look. She scooted forward to be closer to him, holding his shoulder underneath one of her hands. "He didn't hurt me, if that's what your thinking, Daryl." She said reassuringly.

Daryl nodded his head slowly before he got the courage to glance up, realizing just how close in proximity his face was to hers. It was probably the first time sense the mortuary that he was able to see her face up close, memorizing every single detail. Every freckle, the small lines that had started to form underneath her eyes from exhaustion. The small dimples in her cheeks when she slowly raised her lips into a smile. She knew he was examining her, looking at her the same way he had been at the mortuary.

"You know, you never answered my question." Beth said, criss-crossing her legs and getting even closer to him. He flinched momentarily, trying to get his mind straight. Beth looked radiant in the light coming off of the candles from the table just inches away from them, just as she had by the piano, by the kitchen table, on the couch sleeping in that dusty room. She always had this fiery glow that made his blood pool in his stomach, aching to feel what her skin felt like underneath his fingertips. But he never entertained that thought, knowing what everyone would have said back at the prison- and even right now.

"What question?" He asked her, trying to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about. But he knew exactly what she was referring to.

* * *

_"I'm gonna leave a thank you note." Beth said, writing diligently with her pen on a piece of paper she tore out of her notebook._

_"Why?" He asked, scooping jelly out of the jar with his spoon._

_"For when they come back. If they come back. Even if they don't come back I still want to say thanks." She said, turning her attention back to writing on the piece of paper in front of her. Daryl thought for a moment, considering the food that was in the cabinet knowing they could ration it out between each other at least for a few days. Knowing that they were safe there at least for a period of time._

_"Maybe you don't have to leave that." He said finally. Beth glanced up, and looked at him wanting him to elaborate._

_"Maybe we stick around her for awhile. They come back, we'll just make it work." Beth smiled, amazed at what he had said. Before they had ended up together after the prison, Daryl's reaction to her writing a thank you note would have been very, very different._

_"So you do think there's still good people around." She said, giggling a little, Daryl looked up to her, a small smile playing on his lips. "What changed your mind?" She said, her Georgia accent thick as it rolled off of her tongue, making Daryl tense a little bit. He always found the accent of a Georgia woman to turn him on._

_He looked back to his food in front of him, glancing between it and Beth a few times, a smirk on his face. "You know." he said. She didn't even flinch at the comment, he knew it probably went right over her head even though he thought it was crystal clear what he meant._

_"What?" She said, giggling again._

_Yep. Right over her head, he thought to himself._

_Trying his best to brush it off, and not feel her eyes practically piercing his skin he shrugged his shoulders. "I unno" he mumbled, coming out pretty much as a different language other than English. The girl had this hold on him that made him incredibly aware of every single move, noise, or thought he made. He second guessed his every action around the now 19 year old girl that while made her feel at ease, made him feel vulnerable at the same time._

_"don't 'I unno'" She said, mocking his shoulder movements with the same innocent smile on her face. "What changed your mind?"_

_Giving it one last shot, he just looked into her eyes. Something he found extremely difficult to do up until that point. He had never been much for words at any time in his life. This moment was no different. He didn't even know how to put it into words if he had to. He didn't want to scare her, make her afraid of him, or lose the friendship that they had formed._

_The truth was, there was only one reason he changed his mind from thinking that every single person he came across was a total shit bag and had bad intentions._

_Only one reason why he started to look at things in a different light._

_That reason was a small, blonde haired, blue eyed girl named Beth Greene._

* * *

"No, I answered you." He said finally. Standing up and adjusting the crossbow on his shoulder. standing over the bed as she looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. She started to look angry, standing up off of the bed to face him, and raising her voice a little higher than she meant to.

"Don't patronize me like that, Daryl. I'm not a little girl, you can answer my question for gods sake." He looked around to the others, noticing Michonne and a few of the rest of them had looked up from what they were doing when they heard her voice raise.

"Shh." he said, trying to get her to relax. "I know you're not." He said, dropping his eyes to the floor. He wasn't sure how to respond at that point.

She held her hands up in defeat, settling herself back onto the bed in her previous position, seemingly not even phased by it at all.

Daryl sighed, trying to wrap his mind around why he acted the way he did around her. The girl asked him a simple question that he refused to answer because he was scared of her reaction, yet again. When they had got separated initially, during the time with Joe's group he had thought about that conversation over and over again. He always played it over in his mind, but the ending of it was always different. If the walkers hadn't come up to the door, if the dog never showed up and interrupted them. If he would have just gathered up the courage to open his damn mouth instead of staring at her like a fool.

He turned around, walking to the middle of the room to a couch that he had settled on earlier, laying his head onto of the armrest. The thoughts that rolled through his head for the rest of the evening were relentless, further confirming how much of an idiot he thought he was. The fact that he couldn't just say something to the girl. It was unnerving. Over and over again he played the scenario in his head as he layed on the couch in silence. As everyone else was peacefully asleep with the exception of Glenn, who stared at the door entrance on guard. He lately seized every opportunity to exert some sort of rage or anger on whatever was available, and Daryl understood that.

The couch was positioned in the room to the point where all he had to do was look to the right to be able to have a clear sight of Beth on the other side of the room. She had been sleeping for a while during the time that he was lost in thought, but she was awake now. She had lit the pilot light that someone had placed near her bed to a dim glow, allowing her some visibility in the dark store. He didn't know what gave him the courage to walk back over to her in that moment, but he did. She was startled when she finally realized he was standing next to her, placing a hand on her chest after she had jumped a little bit.

"Jesus Daryl, you scared the shit out of me." She said in a whisper, trying not to wake anyone around her.

"Sorry," He mumbled. avoiding eye contact and Starting at the wall in front of him, feeling like an idiot for walking over to her without a reason or anything to say. She raised her eyebrow at him, he was just standing there not saying anything, she didn't seem to know why he came over there any more than he did.

"You gonna sit down or..?" She said playfully. He laughed to himself at his stupidity, knowing that she was fully aware that he walked over there with absolutely no idea why he had even done so. He sat down beside her this time, propping himself up against the wall just as she was doing. She had been scribbling in a notebook she had found at the convenience store they stopped at, she filled at least 10 pages front to back so far as he could tell. She continued writing, seemingly not bothered by his presence there as she wrote, humming something softly to herself. She stopped briefly, and bit her lip. "What do you think today's date is?" he turned his head to look in her direction.

"Damn if I know. Doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" he answered.

"It does matter, it's something to keep track of how long we've been here in a way I guess." Daryl entertained that thought for a moment, understanding why she felt the need to track down the days and keep record of her age, keep record of her younger years. He watched her continue to write on her paper, humming the same tune over and over again.

"What're you writin'?" He finally asked, interested in whatever it was she was so focused on. "It's a song. Well-not my song, but I used to do this all the time in high school during class. Had a song in my head so I'd write it on a piece of paper. Sure made the time go by faster in the shitty classes, like economics." She said, laughing to herself. Beth remembered being the youngest in most of her classes, she had been able to take classes that were really senior or junior level classes because she already had so many credits, she always excelled in every class she took. A little time off writing never seemed to hurt her.

"Wish I could hear it again, you know, like for real with instruments." she continued, thinking about how she used to play the CD in question on repeat in her bedroom when she was in high school.

"One of these houses gotta have a guitar or somethin'" he replied, trying to think of ways to help her get what she wanted, just like he had done when she went on a tirade looking for her first drink. Smashing the bottle of peach schnapps, and introducing her into the world of moonshine he knew all too well.

"Yeah, good luck finding one in a furniture store" she snorted. He laughed a little bit before silence fell between them again. She let out a sigh, closing the notebook and placing it underneath the bed on the floor.

"You." He finally said, surprised at his own boldness.

"Me what?" She replied with a smile, laughing lightly at his statement.

"You changed my mind, that's what." He said finally after a deep breath. He hadn't realized he had been holding his breath during the time it took for her to respond to what he said until he began to say that. She smiled broadly, a light blush coming to her cheeks that he could see by the pilot light. "See I knew there was a heart somewhere in there." She said, nudging him in the shoulder playfully. "Stop." He said, a red color pooling in his cheeks mirroring the color in hers.

He had stayed there for a while and fell asleep at some point, he knew he had been exhausted. When he opened his eyes at some point during the night, he had realized she had nestled her head on his shoulder and he'd assumed shed fallen asleep. That was until he heard her soft singing, and felt the vibration of her voice humming against his skin.

_"I lay down to sleep at night until the craving for you wakes me up._  
_I reach out to grab you, gotta have you, yell until I've had enough. _  
_And you got me now. Yeah, yeah. You got me now. _

_We can lock the world outside, close my eyes, give in and then we'll fly. _  
_You're a secret that I'm gonna try to keep until the day I die. _  
_And you got me now, you got me now." _

She raised her hand, running it over the stitching in the side of his jeans as she continued. He knew she thought he was asleep, so he tried his damndest not to make any sudden moves. As much as he tried not to admit it, the girls voice sounded like the voice of a damn angel, he couldn't deny that even if he tried to.

_"You always want me, you run straight for me,_  
_ down the mountain like a raging fire. _  
_And the storm is comin' I can hear the warning._  
_Yeah, you got me now."_

Beth had been well aware that Daryl had woken up when she was singing, but she let him keep pretending. She smiled to herself, noticing his breathing pace change when her hands had run along the stitching of his jeans. She entertained him for a little bit with it, but she felt brave when she spoke up finally.

"You said you wanted to know what I was writing. I know you're awake, you know."

He laughed a little bit, but didn't say anything. Beth continued singing and humming whiled Daryl slowly started Drifting back off to sleep, with the sound of her voice humming through his mind.

* * *

**A/N: Beautiful song credit goes out to You Got Me - Ashley Monroe**


	10. A Hand To Hold

"Don't go steppin' on no more traps now, Greene." Daryl said from a few inches behind her, following her as she tracked the markings in the grass with the crossbow held to her eye line. Beth rolled her eyes and ignored him, This was the first time they had been alone in the woods sense they had been hunting the previous time, hence his commentary about stepping on the trap in the woods.

She made a noise, before putting the crossbow on the ground and smacking her palm to her thigh. She flicked the mosquito that bit her off and rubbed the area lightly. "Damnit." she said under her breath. It was the 5th time it had happened in the past hour.

"Gotta find you some normal pants at some point." He commented as he watched her, noticing the raised red bumps on her body. Two on her right calf and the others on her thigh. He silently critisized himself for even mentioning it. If his thoughts had it their way, she wouldn't be wearing them at all. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind again.

"It's just so damn mucky out, they're everywhere." She complained, bending down to pick the crossbow back up and positioning it back to where it was before. It had to have been getting closer to the summertime again, it was getting hotter and hotter every day and finding any sort of shade, or some sort of cool air was nothing short of a godsend.

Beth stood about 6 feet away from a squirrel on a tree in the woods, positioning herself to the point where she thought she had a good aim at the animal. "Don't close your left eye, I keep watchin' you do that." He whispered into her ear. She felt herself tense as he spoke to her on the back of her right ear, his breath hot on her neck. She closed her eyes for a moment. What the hell is wrong with me? She thought inwardly, trying to regain her composure and do it correctly.

She breathed in slowly, before pressing the trigger, sending the arrow sailing through the air and straight into the abdomen of the squirrell knocking it from its grasp on the tree onto the ground. Beth squealed, turning around and shoving the crossbow into Daryl's hands as she scurried over to the animal on the ground ahead of her. Daryl laughed shaking his head, amused at her excitement. He never felt excited when he had learned how to hunt simply because he didn't really have a choice in learning it. He admired her enthusiasim as he followed after her.

She bent down, pulling the arrow out of the squirrell and turned around with a huge grin on her face. "I did it." She said, with a giggle, handing him the arrow back to which he stored away, still watching her. She held the animal by the tail, and held it out for him to take from her. "Nah, it's yours." he said, waving his hand in her direction. She raised her eyebrows at him in amusement, "Well, I know it's mine, I'm asking you to take it. You think I wanna skin and gut that thing, no thanks." She said laughing. "Well, you're gonna haveta learn to do that yourself one of these days." He said with a smile as he snatched it from her hands , which she returned by shoving him lightly in the shoulder, walking off in the direction of the furniture store.

Rick had set up a small cooking area outside of the furniture store. He had decided to cook the food outside, and then bring it in for everyone to eat back inside of the store, that way they were safe.

Rick and Daryl had cooked the food for everyone, including Beth's capture as well as two rabbits Carl and Rick had caught, and rationed it out to everyone. They had cleared a small area for everyone to sit together because while they ate, Rick planned on discussing their next move on where they were going to go from there. Beth was sitting in between Carl and Abraham, picking at her food with her fingers, avoiding eating it. She still didn't seem to have an apetitie.

"You know, if you keep this up you're gonna dissappear." Abraham said, pulling some meat off of the bone and dropping it into his mouth with his head back. He gave her a look, to which she shook her head. "Whattya mean by that?" Beth replied, still pushing the food around while not really eating it.

"I mean you're practically skin and bones little lady, you turn sideways and you practically dissappear." He said with a laugh. She was slightly amused by his attempt to get her to eat something, he and the others must have noticed she hadn't really eaten in the past week.

"I'm Seargent Abraham Ford." He said finally, outstretching his arm for her to shake. "Beth Greene." She replied, finally averting her eyes from the meat in front of her. "I know who you are. You didn't know who I was, I was just introducing myself to you." He said, again taking another peice of meat into his mouth. She nodded knowingly, she knew he was in the container with her group during the time she was locked away by Gareth so she assumed they must have exchanged words about her being there.

"I'm worried about that one." He continued, looking in the direction of Glenn who was staring at the ground blankly, sitting across from where they were currently sitting. Beth took a moment to look at Glenn, noticing the severely depressed look on his face, he looked lost.

"Yeah, I am too." She said softly. "He loved my sister more than anything in the world." She continued, remembering how in love they were with each other. At the prison she had the most memories of them together, there was rarely a time that they weren't happy and head over heels for each other.

"A determined one, that guy is." Abraham said, remembering how focused he had been on locating Maggie. He had been impressed when Glenn had hit him in the face back near the railroad tracks. He had to give him some credit for that, Glenn was a little less than half his size, clearly had no military training as he had had. He was signifigantly weaker than him, but in order to secure himself to find Maggie, he took him on. That was something Abraham rarely saw in men, courage.

"You should go talk to him." Carl piped in. He had his legs crossed and his elbows on his knees with his head balanced in both hands, looking up in the direction of Beth.

"What do I say?" She asked quietly. She didn't know what she could say, and if she did say something she didn't want it to be the wrong thing. She was hurting, she had lost her sister. She knew how it felt to lose something close to her, with the memory of her father, maggie, zach and others in her mind as well. But she didn't know how to approach him correctly.

"Beth, she was your sister. The only person that was closer to her than you is him. Just go talk to him." She sighed, pushing the food away, looking back to Carl. "You know, you amaze me with just how smart you are sometimes." she said, ruffling his hair and standing up. She took a deep breath and started walking towards Glenn, around the outside of the circle they had managed to form.

"Where ya goin'?" Daryl's voice caught her attention as she was about 3 people away from him. She crouched down to get closer, not wanting others to overhear her. "I'm gonna go talk to Glenn." She said, looking in his eyes for some sort of approval for what she was doing. She still felt unsure even after her and carl's little pep talk. He swallowed the food in his mouth, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"You think that's a good idea?" He finally asked, not knowing wether Glenn was ready to talk to anyone at the moment. "I don't know. I was kinda hoping you would know actually." She said, dropping her gaze to the floor. "up to you." He finally said, shrugging his shoulders and not sure of how else he could answer that question.

She stood up and walked over to Glenn sitting next to him. He didn't say anything, continuing to stare into space. "Hey." She finally said. Still nothing.

"You don't have to talk if you don't want to." She managed to say, fidgeting and messing with her fingers in her lap. "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay." She said, turning her head to get a good look at his face. He looked exhausted, the bags underneath of his eyes were protruding and dark.

"You should get some sleep, I'm sure Daryl will keep watch for you." She said, glancing at Daryl who was watching them talk. She sat for a long time, trying to see if he would eventually budge but he didn't. She stood up slowly, "if you need anything you know where to find me." She said, slowly walking away back to her place in the small circle.

"Alright," Rick said, getting everyones attention. "We've stayed here as long as we can. I've been talking it over with a few of the others here, and we think our best idea is to move forward with Eugene, Rosita and Abraham to washington."

Beth furrorwed her eyebrows, Washington? She thought.

"We're going to stay here tonight, get some rest and head out tomorrow at dawn. We've stayed here as long as we can, there's only so many options here and if Eugene really knows what he says he knows, this might be our only shot." Beth was even more confused at this point. She didn't know who Eugene was, but she had assumed it was the man sitting next to Abraham.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused." She finally said, getting everyone's attention. "Why Washington? Am I the only one out of the loop here?" She said, looking at the expressions on everyones faces, noticing that nobody seemed to have questioned what Rick had said, nobody seemed to be confused like she was. Nobody said anything at first until Eugene finally spoke up.

"My name's Eugene Porter, I know what caused the outbreak." Beth was stunned at his comment, why didn't she know about this? She thought.

"Okay, well what caused it then?" She questioned boldly.

"It's classified" Everyone said in unison, Rick rolling his eyes as it came out of his mouth shaking his head. She looked around to everyone, seeing they shared the same expression as Rick's with the exception of Abraham, Eugene, and the spanish girl next to them. Her face clearly showed confusion.

All she could think was that if everyone seemed to be skeptical about wether Eugene in fact did know the cause to the outbreak, why would they be willing to go with him to washington in the first place?

She let it go, while everyone finished eating and small talk ensued among the men about which direction they would be heading in, Beth headed back to where everyone had set up their sleeping arrangments, sitting on the side of the bed where Michonne was sitting by herself.

"You believe this shit?" Beth said to her in a huff as she sat down. Michonne laughed at her comment, adjusting herself a bit on the bed. "You know, language like that don't suit you very well." She replied, waving her to move closer as she grabbed the bottom of her hair, pulling a comb out from her bag and started untangling Beth's knots as gently as she could. Beth moved over and allowed her access to her hair, this way she was focused on the movements of everyone else in the room.

"I'm serious." She said, turning her head slightly as she spoke to her. "What if he's lying about the whole thing." She said, letting out a sigh of frustration. "Well, what do you suggest?" Michonne said knowingly, seperating her hair into two sections. "We can sit in this furniture store or we can try and do something for a change." Beth thought about it as Michonne worked her hands through her hair, realizing she was slowly braiding it. She knew Michonne was probably right about the whole thing, but she couldn't help but be skeptical.

She looked forward, seeing Daryl walk towards his couch, giving her a small smile before he sat the crossbow on the ground. She smiled back and looked down, trying to keep her composure. She felt her face get hot every single time he looked at her lately and she knew that was becoming more and more obvious.

"He was really worried about you, you know." Michonne said gently, working her hair slowly into a braid as neatly as she could.

Beth laughed a little bit, "Who?" She asked oblivously.

"You know who." She replied, reaching for a hairband wrapped around her wrist.

Beth laughed a little harder this time, ignoring it all together. She figured she was reffering to Daryl, but she couldn't be sure. Michonne wrapped the hair band a few times around the end of the braid, letting it fall against Beth's back.

"Turn around," she said. "Let me make sure the front looks alright." Beth obeyed, twisting her body around to face Michonne. She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes, tucking a few stray peices away.

"I've seen the way he looks at you." She began to say, not averting her eyes from their focus on fixing the front of her hair. "Like he's in some sort of trance.

He clearly has feelings for you Beth gimmie a break." She said, laughing lightly and finally looking at beth in the eyes for a moment before returning back to her hair. Beth blushed, holding a hand up to her own cheek.

"You think so?" She replied, barely in a whisper. Michonne laughed and leaned back agaist the wall.

"Oh, so you do know what I'm talking about." Grinning like a fool. Beth's cheeks got even redder.

"Oh, shut up." She said laughing, getting up and walking over to her bed, plopping herself onto it as she thought about everything michonne had just said to her.

Sure, she had thought about him in a different way lately, especially sense they had burned the house down together. But she hadn't really considered the possibility of it being more than just an attraction to him. She thought he was attractive for sure. She found herself getting uneasy when he stood close, or when he was sitting next to her, when he spoke to her in the loving way that he had seem to come accustomed to doing. But she never gave it more than a second thought, at least until now.

She thought it was stupid to think that Daryl would even consider thinking of her in that light. As far as she knew, he was just being protective and he still saw her as a young girl. But she also could see what Michonne was saying about the way he looked at her. A look that would stop her dead in her tracks and make her forget to breathe. She couldn't shake that look from her head no matter how hard she had tried to do so.

By the time she had broken herself from her thoughts, she was aware of the talking between Michonne, Carl, Rick and Tara to her right. Their area was within earshot of hers. She sat up on the bed, looking in their direction as Carl waved her back over to where she was before.

She stood up, walking back over and sat next to Carl on one of the couches, stretching her legs over the armrest. Carl and Rick were reminising about some sort of sport they had used to play together during the summer. A dad/son soccer team that was sort of like a ritual between the two of them back when things were 'normal'. She listened idly and started joining the conversation as Rosita came over and sat accross from her, joined by Eugene and Abraham.

"You should sing something." Carl suggested to Beth mid conversation. Beth blushed red again, slightly embarassed. She remembered her dad always putting her on the spot like this, now it seemed as though he had passed that torch on to Carl. Abraham nodded. "Can't remember the last time I heard a voice singin', seems like that radio reception went out way too long ago." Everyone nodded in aggrement and encouragement.

"Sing what?" She exclaimed, feeling her face get hot from all the attention. "Anything!" Carl said back to her, tilting his head as everyone agreed with him audibly.

She sat up straight, placing her feet on the floor when she was aware that Daryl had been leaning on the armrest on the couch, barely sitting ontop of it. She smiled in his direction as he nodded in everyone's direction. "Go on, sing somethin'" He said to her. She was instantly now aware of every single thing, movement, or sound that Daryl made after her conversation with Michonne, so yet again, her face began to turn shades of red.

"Fine! you people drive me nuts." She said, clearing her throat. Daryl walked around the edge of the couch and she scooted over to give him room as he sat next to her, he could feel his eyes again. Those eyes.

"Any requests?" She muttered, earning a laugh from everyone.

"No rap, I might haveta strangle you if you do that." Eugene said.

"You think I can rap, honestly?" She replied with a giggle. Finally gathering up the courage to sing in front of all of them

She took a deep breath, looking to her right and realized Glenn had walked over to everyone. He still looked depressed. Beth scooted closer to daryl while Carl moved to the other end of the couch, beth signaled him over.

_"It's a long trip alone,_

_over sand and stone,_

_that lie along the road we almost traveled down._

_So maybe you could walk with me a while,_

_and maybe I could rest beneath your smile._

_Everybody stumbles sometimes and needs a hand to hold._

_Cause it's a long trip alone"_

She continued the song, singing as Daryl's hand somehow made its way to intertwine with her own. She smiled at him, seeing the look in his eyes.

It's a short piece of time, but just enough to find a little peace of mind under the sun somewhere

_So maybe you could walk with me a while,_

_and maybe I could rest beneath your smile._

_You know we can't afford to let one moment pass us by,_

_cause it's a short piece of time._

_And I don't know where I'd be without you here, cause I'm not really me without you here._

_So maybe you could walk with me a while_

_And maybe I could rest beneath your smile_

_Everybody stumbles sometimes and needs a hand to hold_

_Cause it's a long trip alone."_

She finished with a shy smile, while everyone clapped for her, trying their best not to be loud and attract attention to them. Beth finally felt at ease for the first time sense she was at the mortuary. Even though she knew they were moving on in the morning, she still appreciated the feeling of somewhat being safe all the same.

When she finished, everyone filtered to their sleeping areas, except for daryl and beth who sat holding hands still on the couch.

She looked up to him, noticing he was giving her that look again. He had his head in his right hand that was propped up by his elbow on the arm rest of the couch, smiling at her. This daryl was much different then the daryl she met. He had softened somehow, letting his guard down.

She smiled back, letting her head rest on his shoulder, as she scanned the room with her eyes. Everyone had fallen asleep.

"Hey." He said to her gently nudging his shoulder to get her to look at him. She leaned up and met his eyes. "You should get some sleep." He continued, stretching his arms above his head. "Gon' be a long day tomorrow."

She waited for him to stand up but he didn't. As much as he was telling her to go to sleep, his actions seemed to be saying something different. If daryl was being completely honest with himself, he'd be content falling asleep right there with her beside him.

She knew how emotionally on guard he usually is, so she wasn't surprised he didn't make any moves or just come out and say something.

She laughed a little bit at herself, biting on her lip softly causing Daryl's whole body to stiffen. He found himself clearing his throat as his thoughts about catching that soft pink lip between his own made his cock twitch. He had to regain composure, and quickly.

"Stay with me tonight." She whispered, slowly standing up and bringing him to his feet. Knowing he should leave her be and go back to his own area of the store, before he acted his thoughts out and did something he couldn't take back.

But he couldn't say no.

He nodded in agreement, following her lead through the store.

* * *

**A/N: good evening everyone! And happy Easter from the east coast. It's been a long weekend for me, but I wanted to upload this ASAP for y'all. Thank you for the love, the advice, and everything. Until next chapter. **

**-Stephanie **


	11. Sheriff's Department

**AN: hey guys, just forgot to write last chapters song credit.**

**Long Trip Alone - Dierks Bentley**

* * *

7 o'clock in the morning came too early for Beth's liking. She felt exhausted even though she hadn't really done anything that exerted any substantial energy in the past few days. She had gone hunting with Daryl, but she couldn't imagine tracking down a single squirrel in the woods would make her as tired as she had felt in the morning, she didn't want to get out of bed.

Daryl had noticed that everyone was up and moving, gathering their belongings and trying to get all of their stuff together to get ready to leave. He woke up to a nudge on the shoulder by Rick, who had his eyebrow raised at his position.

Daryl was laying on his back with one arm secured behind and underneath his head. His other arm was wrapped around Beth, she was nestled into his shoulder with her head on his chest and her hand losely placed over his stomach. He groaned slightly, shifting a little bit taking the arm that was behind his head and rubbing his eyes. Rick walked back over to continue getting ready to leave, as daryl slightly moved his arm up and down, reluctantly trying to wake Beth up.

"Hey, Beth, It's time to get up." He said gently, admiring her soft face as she slept. She didn't stir, she clearly wasn't waking up with just some gentle words and barely any movement. "Beth." He repeated, slowly reaching his hand out and brushing a peice of the hair that came loose from her braid back off of her face.

She slowly fluttered her eyes open, making some sort of uncoherent mumbling earning a laugh from Daryl. She finally focused her eyes on Daryl's, stretching the arm that had been placed on his stomach up over her head trying to wake herself up.

"What time is it?" She said groggily, forcing her eyes to remain open. He reached his hand out, "Well, according to my watch here, it's approximitley 7:15 AM." He said sarcastically with a sly smile, motioning to his wrist which clearly he didn't have a watch on. She rolled her eyes, lightly shoving his face with her fingers. "You're a dick." She said with a laugh, slowly standing up off the the bed.

He followed her lead, standing to his feet and gathering his crossbow off the ground as Beth grabbed her little black bag full of what little she had and gathered near the front door of the establishment.

She fought to keep her eyes open, and fought to focus on the the words and instructions coming from Rick's mouth once everyone had gathered together. She knew he was saying something about staying in formation, that they were going to take the side roads and do their best to look for cars that they could use, salvage some gas, things of that nature. But she wasn't fully awake until the baricades were removed from the doors and the light coming from the sky filled into the stoor when the doors were opened.

It wasn't fully bright out yet considering how early it was, but any natural light rather than artificial light was enough to bring Beth's senses to attention.

She walked side by side with Tara, who she remembered from when the govenor had showed up to the gates the day her father had died. She had explained everything to her and Tara had expressed how sorry she was about what had happened to her father.

Beth knew how manipulative the govenor could be, she knew that Tara had no idea what the govenor's real intentions had been. She couldn't hold that against her, especially after she learned what she had done to help Glenn find Maggie.

"So." Tara pressed, smiling at her with almost a schoolgirl look on her face. Beth smiled back but scrunched her eye brows together, not really sure what she was getting at.

"So.. What?" She replied, kicking some of the dirt up under her feet as she walked with the toe of her boot.

"What's goin' on with you and him." She said, nodding towards Daryl who was at least 5 feet ahead of her, talking to Rick and matching his strides across the dirt road. She didn't reply, even though she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. She didn't really know what was going on, but she was happy the way things were going.

"Oh, come on." She whispered to her, careful to not let Daryl overhear what she was saying to Beth. "He keeps looking back here every like 45 seconds. Like you're going to disappear into thin air." She laughed at her comment, she hadn't noticed Daryl turning around at all during the time they had been walking.

Truth be told, she hadn't been paying much attention to anything. She was too concerned with thoughts of Maggie that seemed to be plauging her mind sense she had talked to Glenn last night.

"It's nothing." She finally said, rolling her eyes and running her fingers over the braid in her hair which was still perfectly in tact. She avoided making eye contact with Tara, not wanting to really reply in the first place.

"Right, nothing." Tara replied sarcastically with a small laugh, knowing there was more to it than beth was leading on. She didn't press the matter though after that, she knew it really was none of her buisness, but she couldn't help but be curious. She remembered how keen on finding Beth Daryl had been, and clearly noticed the affection they showed one another. She also couldn't help but notice how incredibly young Beth looked compared to the man with the crossbow.

She had to have maybe just be getting out of her teenage years, and judging by daryl's facial hair and soft age lines on his face, she knew the man was easily in his thirties. But again, she knew it wasn't any of her buisness- She liked women for gods sake, if what she did was acceptable, an age gap shouldn't be a problem to anyone either as far as she was concerned.

As beth kept her eyes mostly focused on the ground, the now beaming sunlight from the sky shined on a large grey peice of metal in the ground which reflected into Beth's eye getting her attention. She noticed it was attached to a beam that had been knocked over.

"Rick!" she said, getting him to turn around as she walked off of the foundation of the road into the overgrown grass, slowly turning the sign over and wiping the dirt off of it. When she finally was able to read the lettering on the sign, Rick was kneeling next to her reading the words in his head. The sign read

"Macon County Sherrif's Department. 1/2 Mile."

Rick smiled at Beth as he stood up, watching her do the same with a triumphant grin across her face. "You're starting to impress me, Beth Greene i'll tell you what." He said, continuing to follow the road.

She felt proud of herself in that moment, being able to help and do things other than just care for the children which she had come accustomed to doing at the prison made her feel like a valued member. Everyone had moved towards the area of the sign to investigate so when Beth had stood up, she turned around to see Daryl smiling at her.

She strided over to walk next to Daryl, watching with concern as a walker had stumbled out of the woods. Michonne took action as usual, releasing her katana from it's holder strung across her shoulder, slicing the walkers head off through a clean cut to the neck. As it fell to the ground, she stored it back as everyone continued walking down the road, assuming the road led to the police station.

Beth knew the police station- if it wasn't already ransacked- would have weapons, possibly some patrol cars and maps among other things they could salvage. She spoke her thoughts to Daryl.

"Probably," He replied back to her. "Hopefully no one's gotten to it yet." saying what she had already thought in her mind.

"Yeah, hopefully." She agreed, looking to her feet on the ground as she walked. Daryl noticed the subtle change in her mood, she seemed to be preoccupied with something in her mind.

"Somethin' wrong?" He asked her, lightly tapping her arm with a swing of his own. She looked up, "What?- oh, nothin' I'm fine." She said, stuffing her hands into her back pockets.

"You're not good at hiding things." He finally said after a brief silence, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair as they continued down the road. She smiled at the comment, Maggie always said somewhat the same exact thing to her when she didn't want to bother people with her issues.

"Just been thinkin' about Maggie a lot today, I don't know. Ever sense I tried to talk to Glenn last night." She admitted. Daryl nodded in response, almost regretting pressing the matter with her because he wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"I don't really wanna talk about it. At least not now." She said reluctantly. Fair enough, he thought.

Rick stepped to the gate that had been chained shut from the inside, the sign directly to the right of the lock reading the same as the one they had found on the road without the distance from the location. It was rusted and hung on by only one latch, swinging upside down.

"Someone's gotta be here" he said quietly, grabbing the fence with his hands.

"We can break the lock?" Abraham suggested, grabbing the chain into his hand and lifting it up before dropping it back into its place, looking to rick for approval.

Rick ran a hand over his face. Unsure of how to handle the situation at hand. He wasn't sure if there we're walkers, or worse, other people. Other people usually caused nothing but problems for all of them really. Daryl squinted his eyes to the figure standing next to the building, trying to conceal themselves.

"Rick." He said, motioning in the direction of the building with a nod of his head. Ricks eyes widened at daryl before he walked in that direction, landing eyes on the figure as it pressed against the wall and tried to move out of sight, he must have realized he had been spotted.

"Hey! Show yourself!" Abraham yelled, knowing what was going on watching the actions of daryl and rick.

"Now!" He bellowed after there was no response.

The man was a little too far away to make him out, but nobody took their eyes off of him or lowered their weapons.

Slowly, the figure emerged, but still nobody could make out detail. The sun wasn't helping either, blaring straight at their faces.

"Rick?" The voice yelled the question to them. It was faint, but still audible.

"Rick, is that you?" It yelled, a little more clear this time. The voice was loud, strong, and familiar.

Daryl knew that voice, it clicked instantaneously.

"Carol!" Rick yelled after locking eyes with daryl, realizing the same thing he had. "Carol! Open the gate!" She yelled something towards the building that was incoherent before running towards the gate wildly, gun swinging back and forth as she held it with one end of the wooden handle, the other on the barrel.

She slowed sown as quickly as she could when she became close to the gate, digging into her front pocket of her green khaki pants for her key.

She flung the gate open, ushering everyone inside while still bearing the look of shock on her face. She hugged rick, then onto the others one by one.

Rick and the others had a million questions blowing through their minds, not even knowing where to start. But when movement near the building he caught his attention he broke away from the focus on carol.

Ricks heart clenched in his chest. He was yards away from what he was looking at, but he could make that sight out anytime of the day. Anyday of the week. Any week out of the year.

Tyrese stood outside the door, holding none other than baby Judith grimes to his hip.

Rick thought at first he was seeing things, his mind playing tricks on him. Almost déjà vu to the time at the prison where he could see Lori standing on the bridge, standing in a white dress outside the gate, hearing her voice loud and clear through the phone.

Carl must have noticed that rick was not paying attention to the reunion of them and carol, so when he looked to see what had gotten him to break his attention. He picked up his feet quickly, running towards tyreese.

When he had realized he wasn't imagining it, he followed after him running too fast to comprehend towards the child he was almost positive he lost.

"Judy." Beth whispered as she realized what was going on. She was so scared Judith was dead, and she had slowly started to come to terms with it. She felt as though she lost her own child- she was the one who practically raised her as her own.

"Well I'll be damned." Daryl said, looking down to beth with a smile. "You were right." He said with surprise, fixing his gaze to the reunited family in front of him.

"Yeah, I was." Beth said smiling to herself, walking on ahead to join them. He watched her walk off, taking it upon himself to then relock the gate.

"You need a haircut." Carol said from behind him, laughing a little bit. He turned slightly as he finished latching the gate, "already? The commentary already?" He joked, turning around to face her. She smiled at him. "Glad you're alright." She said sincerely.

"Yeah, you too."


	12. Heated

**AN: I had a really hard time writing this chapter even though it was so god damn simple. I've just been really really out of it these past few days.**

**Don't hate me - hopefully you'll like it.**

**On another note, I have a new story up if you'd like to check it out. It's called Love Grows Wild - The Walking Dead AU - Daryl/OC **

**Thanks for your love as always, and your dedication to my story, and for sticking with me as faithfully as you have. Love you all.**

**Also, Riain if you happen to come across this, your story Respectfully, CMC Dixon was absolutely perfect and I was in love with it from start to finish. Hope everything works out for you!**

* * *

Daryl couldn't help the high school kind of excitement he had felt the second he walked out to the car lot area of the Sheriff's department and laid eyes on one of their patrol motorcycles. As far as he could see, it was the only one left, knocked over onto its side on the ground. It took everything in him not to run straight for it. He lost the motorcycle with the prison, and saying that he felt like a piece of him was missing without it - was an understatement.

"Hey Daryl!" Carl said from a few feet ahead of him. "Look! A motorcycle!" He was happy in that moment that someone else shared his excitement about the bike, he didn't have to hide it too much. He walked as Carl jogged over to it, examining the lights on it. It sure as hell wasn't anything like Merle's motorcycle, it was wider, a little more sturdy.

"It's not as cool as your old one." Carl noted to him, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"A bike's a bike." Daryl replied, unable to hide the hint of disappointment in his voice just like Carl had. He knew he couldn't be picky about it, he knew he was lucky he even found one there in the first place.

When they arrived at the department, Rick knew exactly where to look for the keys to the patrol vehicles - if they hadn't already been taken- and to his surprise, he was able to locate a few sets of keys to a few cars out in the lot. Having Rick was a blessing to the others, god knows it would have taken much longer to locate all the things that Rick located as quickly as he had.

After Abraham, Daryl, Carl, and Rick figured out which keys led to which cars, they headed back inside to one of the larger office rooms. The room was dark, with the exception of a few small windows which let some sort of light in. There surprisingly were no walkers when they arrived, and they quickly learned from Tyreese and Carol that there had been none there when they arrived either. There had been a officer in an office that had clearly, "Opted out" with a gunshot wound through the mouth and out the back of his neck. Tyresee removed the body that had been decaying for quite some time outside of the fences of the sheriff's office. Unable to deal with the sight, let alone the smell.

It didn't take long for Beth to jump at the chance to get Judith back into her arms, crying softly onto the child's small shoulder out of pure happiness when she first curled her against her own chest. She felt just like Rick had, that she had found her own child that she thought was lost. That she thought was dead. She noticed how much more active she was, giggling and toying with her hair. Saying illegible things that young babies usually would. She took in her scent, trying to memorize it as best she could. She never wanted to lose her again, the thought of it hurt more than she could explain.

Everyone sat amongst themselves, Rick was standing with Tyreese, seemingly in an in depth conversation about something. Michonne and Carol were talking away in a corner, having some sort of conversation that was hard for Daryl to make out. Daryl sat next to Beth, watching her as she had sat baby Judith into her lap, letting Judith wrap her small fingers around Beth's own, bouncing her up and down a little bit getting her to giggle.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tyreese said in a harsh whisper to Rick, scolding him for not telling him about what Carol had done to Karen and David. Tyreese felt betrayed. He had forgiven Carol for her actions, but was furious that Rick had kept this information from him.

"I was going to." He replied in a serious tone.

"But you didn't!" He said, a little louder this time, which made Daryl look in their direction, seeing Rick with a desperate look that he was giving Daryl. It didn't take him long to realize what they had been talking about.

"Right when the governor shot from the tank when we were down in the tombs, when you showed Daryl and I the rabbit." Rick continued, hoping he'd believe him. He didn't want a replay of the fight that he had with Tyreese the day he found out what had happened to the people she killed. But just as he had said that to him, he noticed Tyreese's demeanor change slightly, he sat down on the edge of one of the desks, still facing Rick.

"It was Lizzie." Tyreese said. "She was the one who did that- to the rabbits." He said in a low tone. "She was the one feeding the walkers by the fence too." It was only after he had said that, that Rick had realized the two sisters were missing.

"How do you know that for sure?" Rick replied, clearly interested in his explanation.

"She- She was messed up. She couldn't be around other people." He said, mirroring the same thing that Carol had said to him just before she had to put a gun to Lizzie's head. He shuddered at the memory of looking out the window and watching the girls lifeless body drop to the ground.

"She killed her sister, Rick. Stabbed her everywhere but her head so she'd come back as a walker. Said she was going to do it to Judith too. Said we 'didn't understand'" he concluded, rubbing his hand over his face, trying to shake the memory out of his mind.

"Where is she?" Rick said, not meaning to sound angry, but when he heard Tyreese tell him about what she had done to her own sister and what she had intended to do with Judith, he felt his blood run cold.

Tyreese looked to Carol, watching her laugh a little bit at what Michonne had been saying to her.

"We took care of it. She couldn't be around other people."

* * *

"You should take a shower." Daryl said to her as Carl picked Judith up, rocking her gently in his arms as he walked over to Rick. She reached back to the hairband wrapped around her ponytail and started unraveling the braid with her fingers.

"I think YOU should take a shower." Beth joked with a amused look.

"You tryin' to say I smell, Greene?" He replied back, laughing a little bit.

"Yeah. That's what I'm saying." She said with a wild grin on her face, she shook her hair out and threaded her fingers through it, letting the loose waves wrap around the back of her head and cascade over her shoulder. She crossed her arms and leaned her body back against one of the desks behind her.

"You better watch what you say, Greene." He said, narrowing his eyes at her, he tried not to stare at her for too long, but she was biting her damn lip again, making him uneasy. Again. She couldn't help the loud laugh that escaped her lips. She found it incredibly hilarious when he tried to scold her in any way.

"I'm- I'm so-I'm sorry." She managed to make out between laughs, her cheeks hurting from laughing so hard at him. He shook his head at her. Unable to help the smile that he had on his face.

"What's so damn funny, girl?" He asked, copying her position by crossing his arms and leaning on the other desk across from her.

She stopped laughing when she finally looked at his face, the smile that she had come accustomed to seeing lately that he had splayed across his face for some reason startled her this time. She felt her breath hitch in her throat, she knew her face was turning red but she had no idea how she could stop it when she couldn't even get herself to look away from his face.

He stood there watching her expression change, feeling immediately uncomfortable under her gaze but just the same not able to move a muscle. Like she had frozen him in time with her big blue eyes, staring at him mercilessly.

_Damnit Beth, stop staring!_ she scolded herself, clearing her throat and finally breaking eye contact with him. And he looked away as well.

"I, I'm gonna go hit that shower now." He said, smiling slightly but not daring to make eye contact with her.

When he turned the corner, Beth figured she might be able to find some clothes in the women's locker room that possibly were left behind that she'd be able to wear. She couldn't imagine anyone in the police force wearing her size, but if she could find something near her size and a belt, that would be sufficient. She held a hand to her face, feeling the heat from her blush fading as she walked towards the locker room area, trying her best to look through the lockers that were opened for some pants that may fit her, trying a few on and having no luck. She slid her shorts back on, sitting on one of the benches between the rows of lockers.

She couldn't break the look he had on his face out of her head. It was slowly but surely burning itself into her memory carefully, making sure she knew that look like the back of her hand. She didn't understand how it had happened. One moment just a month ago the guy wouldn't have said but maybe 5 words to her at a time, and now it seemed as though he couldn't take his eyes off of her. She felt the same way though, finally accepting the fact that she had been staring at him as well. It wasn't just a one sided thing- She wanted him to look at her just as much as she had been looking at him.

She was inwardly telling herself she was an idiot, before standing up and giving the last pair of pants one last try. And of course, they didn't fit either.

She decided to give up, pulling her shorts on yet again. She began to fold the pants for some unknown reason to her.

"Any particular reason you're in the men's locker room?" Daryl's voice said from a few feet behind her. Startling the hell out of her and causing her to jump. She placed them back in the locker. "Any particular reason why you continuously feel the need to scare the shit outta-" She couldn't finish her sentence, as though she had forgotten how to speak when she turned to see Daryl in his pants, but no shirt on. Still dripping wet from the shower with a towel in his hand.

"Me." She finally said softly, finishing her sentence after what seemed like an eternity.

She found herself staring again, watching a droplet of water drop from the end of a piece of his hair and onto his shoulder, then down over his pectoral muscle, down his stomach, disappearing into the waistband of his jeans at a tortuously slow pace.

_Jesus Christ, pull it together!_ She thought, turning around slowly breaking her gaze.

It was only then that she realized why none of the pants fit her. Of course she was in the mens locker room. She would be in the men's locker room. She inwardly smacked herself on the forehead at her stupidity, trying not to turn around. She knew if she looked at him like that again, he'd think she was crazy.

"I thought this was the women's locker room - guess that explains why none of these pants fit." She said, finding her voice again.

It only took him a second to notice the look in her eyes, she looked dazed, staring at him like he was a piece of meat. She probably didn't notice this time, but she was biting that lip again, softly. As he watched her, He felt his entire body tense up. he noticed the change in her voice, it sounded dark, raspy, and almost primal.

The look in her eyes and the way she was making him feel was making him teeter on the edge of making a decision that his body was telling him to make, but his head was telling him not to. He was fighting with himself, one part of him telling him to run, the other telling him to walk right up to her and give her all of him right there on the cold locker room floor.

He felt like he was hovering over his own body, unable to control anything that he was doing. She was still facing the locker when he walked over and stood behind her, dropping the towel on the bench where she had been sitting before. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't watched her try on the last pair of pants that she had just placed back in the locker. Her impossibly long legs sliding in and out of her pants had made him grow hard instantly.

She didn't dare move, staring at the pants feeling heat pool into the area between her legs. She wanted him, there was no doubting that. But she would be lying through her teeth if she said she wasn't somewhat scared.

She slightly turned her head when she noticed just how close he was. He was within inches of her backside. Part of her wanting to pounce on him, but she didn't want to scare him away like she had done so many times before.

"Daryl." She rasped out slowly, not daring to move a muscle.

And that was all it took to get Daryl reach his hand around her head, titling her chin backwards to meet his face. He stared into her solid black pupils, watching her chest heave up and down as he leaned his head down, finally doing what he'd been dreaming about doing for way, way too long.

She hesitated, only because her brain almost couldn't process what was going on. He kissed her gently, their lips moving together in soft movements. Beth felt her knees grow weak, feeling as if she was about to drop to the ground when Daryl wrapped his arm around Beth's stomach, pulling her closer to his body, forcing her to feel his growing arousal against her.

She gasped into his mouth, and Daryl took that opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth, tasting every inch of it slowly, sensually, biting her lower lip gently. He remembered how many times he had wished he could taste her when he'd watch her bite her lip. He couldn't help the groan coming out of him as he pushed her body flush against the locker in front of her, smirking at the moan that fell out of her mouth as he pushed her against it.

She turned around, struggling as she did so because she was pressed so closely to the locker between it and Daryl. She pressed her lips again to his, hard, desperately. Trying to taste every single part of him she could, stroking her tongue across his and slowly hitching her leg around his hip, relishing in the feeling of him gripping her thigh that was wrapped around him. And just as quickly as it had started, it ended.

He broke his lips from hers, pressing his forehead against hers, gasping for air and trying to get himself to relax, trying to catch his breath as he watched Beth try to catch hers.

"Beth." He pleaded, trying his damn well best to get her to pull away. He knew he didn't have the strength to.

"Daryl." She said back, lust clear in her eyes. She was open, wanting.

"I really dunno what I'm sposed to say right now." He said, breaking eye contact from her heated gaze. He looked to the floor, until she reached her small hand to his chin and guided his focus back to her face. She smiled, placing both hands on either sides of his face.

"You don't have to say anything."


	13. Thankful

**Hey!**

**Sorry about the slight delay on this. But you should be happy because it's really long.**

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews, the recommendations, the favorites, the follows - everything. You all are fantastic.**

**Special thanks to StillAlone - You've help me out tremendously. Seriously, you're the best.**

**Let me know what you think! Leave some love.**

**-Stephanie**

* * *

Daryl took a deep breath, resting his chin on top of her head, placing his hands gently on her arms. She leaned into him, breathing in his clean scent, pressing her own forehead against his chest, trying to process everything that had just occurred in the past few minutes. She felt as if she was floating, her knees still feeling weak and her body still longing to touch him, kiss him, feel him close to her for as long as she could. When he rested his chin on her, she turned to press her cheek to his chest, wrapping her arms around his torso and closing her eyes.

She didn't know how over the past month or so that she had ended up where she was right now, nestled against him, with his warm hands on hers making her feel happier and more at ease than she had in a long time. She kept waiting for herself to wake up, thinking she was in a dream.

She wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she opened her eyes to see Daryl's emotionless stare glaring at a fire a few feet ahead of him, chewing on the last bits of snake he had cooked, not giving her more than a passive glance. But the longer she stood against him, with his heat radiating through her, she knew it wasn't possible that it was a dream. Even though she thought it was too good to be true.

All the while, Daryl couldn't help the huge feeling of guilt that ran through him as he stood there, feeling Beth's petite hands lock behind his back. He felt as though he had attacked her, and even though she reciprocated the action, he almost felt like he had forced it upon her, and it made him feel like shit.

The feeling that came over him as he approached her from behind was all too familiar too him even though it had been a while sense he felt that way. Approaching the girl from behind as if she were an animal, all but manhandling her like he used to do with the women at the bars he found himself with while he was with Merle. Always drunk, ending up in meaningless sex, with a woman he couldn't give a damn about once he got what his body was begging for.

But Beth wasn't those girls. He wasn't drunk looking for a piece of ass at a bar.

This was different.

She was different.

The last thing in the world he would ever want to do to her is to take advantage of her, or make her feel forced into something. He cared about her too much for that. His heart sank to his feet, trying to find the words to say.

"Beth," He said quietly, raising his chin off of her head. She looked up as Daryl's hands pushed her shoulders back just enough so that she could look at him comfortably.

"Beth, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- I just." He said, struggling to get his point across, taking one of his hands off of her shoulders and rubbing it down his face. Her face showed confusion, as if she didn't know what he was talking about. Her big blue eyes glazed over, pupils bleeding out leaving only a small rim of the blue between that and the white of her eye. She looked at him so innocently, so forgiving, so warm. Something he knew he wasn't used to. He couldn't tell if it made him uncomfortable or not.

"Sorry for what?" She asked, in the same low tone he was speaking to her in, taking her hands and placing them on his chest.

"I shouldn't have done that." He said in a whisper, furthering the confused look upon Beth's soft features. It took her a moment to finally realize to some degree what he was saying - and even though she knew what he was getting at, she didn't understand why he felt like he shouldn't have done what he had just done.

"Daryl," She said, taking one hand and brushing some of the hair out of his eyes. He swallowed the lump in his throat that formed as she touched him softly with her fingertips, finally focusing his eyes upon hers. He'd been staring at the floor avoiding her gaze, unsure of what to say. The more he looked into her eyes, he felt more and more inclined to continue on the action that he was currently apologizing for.

He stared at her, his smoky blue eyes burning into her own. He tried to read her, understand why she was being so calm or why she hadn't already hit him across the face and stormed out of the locker room. He couldn't seem to wrap his head around why she was even still standing here.

Not to mention the fact that even though he found her - and he saved her - he still felt incredibly guilty for losing her in the first place. He didn't think he'd ever get the image of that car speeding away out of his head. He blamed himself for it every day, he only knew how to blame himself for everything because growing up with Merle and the rest of his family only made it a habit.

He was used to everything being his fault, even if it wasn't the case. Never did he blame anyone else for actions that affected him directly, he never knew any different than taking the responsibility or the short end of the stick for absolutely everything bad that had happened to him in his entire life. He was bound into his feelings that way. It had been like that for a very, very long time.

He felt unworthy of her trust, unworthy of her friendship, unworthy of her all together.

"Daryl," She continued, unable to dismiss or ignore the distressed look in his eyes. "You don't have to apologize for that. You don't have to apologize for anything." She said softly, even though she still really didn't completely understand why he was apologizing.

He broke his gaze from hers, not able to look into her eyes any longer, stepping backwards and sitting down on the bench behind him, running one hand through his damp hair. Just as she was about to step forward, she heard footsteps heading towards the locker room, causing Daryl to stand up and walk away, not giving her a second glance, leaving her standing there trying to figure out what to think.

* * *

Rick stopped Daryl in the hallway, just as he had finished hastily putting his shirt and vest back on.

"You ready to head out?" Rick asked him, turning to walk back towards the office room where everyone was at while Daryl followed quickly behind him.

"Yeah, all set." He replied. "What do we got that runs?" He asked, referring to the vehicles outside.

"Three marked squad cars," He replied, running a hand through his beard. "One more that's unmarked."

"Gas?" He asked.

"Three quarters of a tank in 'em, give or take."

"Key didn't work that motorcycle, did it?" He replied, finding his boots on the ground and starting to lace them up.

"Nah, it didn't. Sorry, man." He replied, knowing how Daryl was going to be disappointed about it.

Daryl nodded, not really caring at the moment. He had other things on his mind.

* * *

Eugene, Tara, Rosita, and Abraham loaded themselves into the first squad car, leading the way down the roads to make their way towards Washington. It was going to take a while, everyone was well aware of that. Abraham had the map, with Eugene by his side in the passenger seat navigating. The group decided to let them take the lead, and they would follow in suit behind them.

Beth rode with Carl and Rick, sitting in the backseat, cradling Judith carefully in her arms. Tyreese, Carol and Michonne rode in the third car.

Daryl wasn't really sure how it happened exactly, but he ended up driving the last car, with Glenn seated right beside him in the passenger seat. He wasn't sure how he was feeling about sharing the drive with Glenn considering how he had been sense Maggie's death, but he was thankful he didn't have Beth in the car with him. He needed to clear his mind, and he knew damn well he wouldn't be able to do so with her sitting next to him.

On the other hand, having Glenn of all people next to him wasn't easy either. Not that Daryl minded his silence, he actually preferred being quiet and to himself most of the time, but knowing what was going on in Glenn's mind and how fragile he was made him uneasy.

They rode in silence for a long time, Daryl keeping his mind occupied by counting the broken down cars that were sprawled across the road that they were on. Or thinking about what they would find in Washington, or what Eugene really knew even though he made it clear to everyone he wasn't allowed to divulge the information to anyone. But his mind always drifted back to a pair of huge crystal blue eyes, or the sound of her voice.

God, how he loved to deny it, but deep down he knew it was one of the sweetest sounds he'd ever known.

The all too familiar memory of the funeral home hallway, where he stood in the shadows listening to her soft singing without her being aware in his presence started to find it's way back to him yet again, and as he was lost in thought, he almost didn't even register Glenn speaking to him.

"Huh?" Daryl asked, looking to Glenn once he had broken himself from his daydream. Glenn looked awful, bulging bags underneath of his eyes, his skin almost a greyish color - Daryl was well aware that Glenn hadn't been eating lately. He felt for the guy, but he still didn't know what he could say.

"She might have been a little bold headed," Glenn said again, laughing slightly with the corner of his lips tugging into the first somewhat of a smile he'd seen Glenn have sense the prison. "But she was really thankful for you." He finished, staring straight through the windshield ahead of him, focusing on the cars driving in somewhat of a procession. Even though he knew on the outside he wasn't affected by saying his wife's name, inside, he found himself in incredible pain. Glenn hearing her name, or other's talk about her still had proven to be extremely difficult.

"Why? I didn't do nothin' that y'all wouldn't have." Daryl replied, dismissing the comment. He chewed on the ends of his thumbnail, turning his head from focusing on Glenn back to the road ahead of him.

"You kept Beth alive, that's not nothing."

"Like I said," Daryl said, adjusting himself in his seat. "Nothin' y'all wouldn't have done."

Glenn sighed, crossing his arms across his chest. "You never were able to accept compliments, Dixon." Glenn noted. "Not even from the dead."

Those words stung, hitting him like a ton of bricks. Knowing that Glenn was right to one degree, he couldn't help that it had pissed him off.

As if the thoughts that were plaguing his mind earlier weren't enough to make him feel guilty about the chain of events that led Beth to have been kidnapped in the first place, here was Glenn, speaking for Maggie, telling him that she was thankful for it.

_Thankful? Are you fucking kidding me?_ His thoughts screamed through his ears.

He honked the horn twice, noticing the break lights of the cars ahead of him as he jerked the car to the side of the road. He hopped out of the car and walked around the side of it jerking Glenn out by his forearm, slamming the door shut behind him and shoving him towards the car with force.

"Maggie - Alive or dead, I don't give a damn- would be a damn fool to be thanking me for shit that had to do with Beth!" He growled at him. He could see the fear in Glenn's widened eyes as he yelled at him, not even bothering to notice the other cars had stopped and most of the men were running over to deflate the situation even though they didn't know what was going on.

"You weren't there- You don't know. It's my fault that damn girl ended up locked in that room in the first place. It's my fault she got kidnapped!" He yelled, before Rick touched his shoulder, jerking him back away from Glenn. Glenn grabbed his own arm, feeling the pressure of where Daryl had grabbed him, knowing it more than likely was going to bruise.

Daryl jerked out from underneath Rick's hand, storming around the other end of the car. "To hell with y'all!" He muttered, pacing back and forth on the paved road.

Everyone was confused, not knowing what on earth was going on. Glenn looked scared and angry, Daryl looked completely pissed off beyond reason, and as far as everyone knew Glenn wasn't even speaking. So the fact that they had just gotten into such a heated argument that Daryl pulled over to the side of the road, wasn't making any sense.

"Daryl, what is going on?" Rick demanded, stepping in front of his path behind the squad car causing him to finally stop pacing.

Daryl squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose trying to calm down. His face was hot, he was pissed the hell off. The only thing he wanted to do was smash his fist into something, but with the exception of his group- he didn't have many hitting targets.

"I'll tell ya what's going on," Daryl began, not bothering to lower his tone of voice. "Either someone else rides with him, or he gets into another damn car. I'm not playin' this game no more!" He yelled, staring into Rick's eyes with intensity.

"What's got his panties in a knot?" Abraham asked out loud to no one in particular as he watched the situation unfold, standing next to everyone else waiting for the situation to get diffused. He just wanted to get to Washington as quickly, and as safely as possible. In his mind, grown men throwing temper tantrums would only slow them down.

When Rick pulled the car over, and Beth emerged from it, she handed Judith off to Carol as she walked past them to see what was going on. She was very well aware that the car that had pulled over was Glenn and Daryl's. She was one of the first ones to actually hear part of the conversation, standing mere feet away from them, yet still not being noticed.

When Daryl demanded that the riding situation be rearranged, Rick walked back over to the group to figure it out but was stopped by a small hand on his arm. Beth's.

She nodded at him, saying with her eyes that she was going to handle it. Rick instructed everyone to go back to their cars, where they would wait on Daryl to get in and get moving.

She leaned the side of her body against the Driver door, watching him intently as he sat there, his back pressed against the trunk of the car facing the opposite direction. He ran a hand through his hair as she looked on patiently, she knew he needed to calm down.

He felt his hair stand up on the back of his neck, realizing someone was staring at him. Besides that, he had heard the soft shuffling of the persons feet against the pavement for a few minutes. Beth had been shifting her weight back and forth as she waited on Daryl to turn around.

He turned around slowly, finally coming down from his pissed off high. He saw Beth, and looked down to the ground, not sure of what she had heard, not sure of what he should say.

She didn't want to press the issue though, she slowly walked to the other side of the car, sliding into the passenger seat without a word. She didn't want to piss him off, didn't want to make him any angrier than he was or that she thought he still was.

He stood there for a moment, his eyes following her as she calmly loaded herself into the passenger seat without a word. He looked down, feeling defeated and somewhat guilty for reacting that way. He got into the drivers seat, pulling off of the side of the road slowly. As he had began to follow the other cars down the road, he glanced in her direction. She had her feet up on the dashboard leaning at an angle on the center console next to him, twirling the hand closest to him around the end of a piece of her hair quietly, the other arm loosely placed across her lap.

She wasn't judging, she wasn't trying to pry into his actions, she wasn't angry, she wasn't resentful. The way she just took it upon herself to get into the car with him with an understanding expression was surprising. He knew that she wasn't afraid of him, that she was just trying to be there for him. Even after everything that had occurred earlier in the day in the locker room, she still wanted to be there for him.

He couldn't decide if it made him happy, or scared the hell out of him.

Or both.

After a long silence, and about an hour of driving, he finally spoke up. He continued to impulsively chew on the skin around his fingernails as he finally began talking.

"He was talking about Maggie." He began. Beth turned her head sideways after he finished, glancing up to him for the first time sense she had gotten into the car. He continued to speak, but she had her eyes closed for a moment, hearing Maggie's name sent a twinge of grief up her spine and brought to the surface the memory of her final moments. She felt her eyes begin to sting from forming tears, but she blinked quickly getting them to subside. This time, the conversation wasn't about her feelings, it was about his.

"Said she was thankful for me." He continued, shaking his head as he spoke, but not averting his eyes from the road. He was afraid to look at her, not knowing what her reaction would be.

"Thankful for you in what way?" She prompted, trying to fully understand why he had gotten so angry with Glenn earlier. She didn't know what had made him start to talk about it- everyone knew Daryl wasn't the type to divulge himself into conversations about things that made him angry and upset- but she didn't care at that moment. The fact that he was talking to her after his abrupt exit earlier, was the only thing that mattered to her at that point.

"Thankful for keepin' you alive." He answered, glancing to her briefly before focusing back to the squad car a few yards ahead of him on the gravel.

At first she was really confused. Maggie had expressed to Glenn, from what Daryl was saying to her, that she was thankful that Daryl had taken care of her, got her out of terminus safe. But she thought about it as if she was looking through his eyes, knowing how guilty he had felt about her being taken by father Gabriel, how guilty he had felt that she had been chained by the ankle at terminus.

Gauging his reaction was going to be difficult, but she knew she had to say something.

"I want you to listen to me, please. And don't get angry." She said. He flinched a little, but didn't respond. She took that opportunity to continue.

"Do you remember when we were at the country club?" He nodded, of course he remembered.

"I was standing in a hallway, and you were in the other room. I had a bottle of something in my hand and I couldn't read it. So I stood there, squinting my eyes trying to decipher the label when I got grabbed by that walker. And it was strong, I couldn't get to my damn knife because I had to use both of my hands to keep it from me. Keep it from bitin' me." She said, finally getting his attention. He had a confused expression on his face, not knowing exactly what she was getting at.

"And I took that bottle and I smashed it on it's head, and I stabbed it over and over again with the broken end until it dropped away from me." She continued, threading her fingers through her hair.

"And you came around the corner 'cause you heard the noise. And I remember being so mad at you. So mad at you." She said, laughing a little bit.

"And I said to you, 'thanks for the help'. You remember that don't you?" She asked him after she finished. He pursed his lips. "'course I do. What're you gettin' at?" His condescending tone didn't bother her though, she knew he didn't mean it.

"Do you remember what you said after I told you that?" She asked him again. _So many damn questions_, he thought.

"No."

"You said that I had told you I could take care of myself, and that in that moment, I did." Daryl shrugged his shoulders, murmuring something incoherent under his breath.

"You are the only person that finally had faith in me, Daryl. Even though you thought like they did before- that I'm just a defenseless and too young and too naive- you finally got it. You're still the only one that does."

He still avoided looking at her. She was too good at making him let his guard down, making him relax and come back to earth, so to speak. He didn't understand how the hell she did it, saying a few words strewn into sentences that made him forget about everything else going on around him.

"Daryl, if I didn't listen to you the night at the funeral home and done what I was going to do- help you fight all of the walkers- I prob'ly wouldn't be here right now. You know that. I know that." She said, finally twisting her body to face him.

"Daryl, if I didn't listen to you I'd be dead already."

"Stop" He interrupted her, his voice somewhat muffled by the finger he was chewing at mercilessly in his mouth.

"No, you let me talk." She said after he had interrupted her, sounding more stern. "When I woke up the next morning, if I didn't have all the things you had taught me, and your voice talking to me in the back of my head- I never would have made it back."

"That's not true. If I didn't send ya outta the house, it wouldn'tve happened. If I woulda just looked out the damn door before I opened it, it wouldn't 'ave happened in the first place." He took the hand with the finger had been chewing on, and placed it back on the steering wheel. Beth noticed how hard he had been gripping it, his knuckles turning white in the process, she struck a nerve and she knew it.

She reached for his other wrist, the one closest to her. She threaded her fingers through his and held on tight.

"Things happen in this world that are cruel, that are awful. Things that don't make any sense. Just like Rick can't protect Carl from every single thing that might happen to him, or Lori, Or Glenn for Maggie. You can't blame yourself for things you can't control. I wish you'd just realize that nobody blames you. I don't blame you." She took a deep breath. "My dad would be thankful for you, just like Maggie. You know that."

Bringing up Hershel was risky, Beth knew that. But she knew that she needed to find a way to get through to him, and using her father's memory was the only way she knew how to. She remembered how It had worked at the moonshine still, and she hoped to god that it would work now.

"He was a great man." Daryl said quietly, squeezing Beth's hand. She sighed with relief at last, leaning her head onto his shoulder.

"He really cared for you, you know that right?" Beth replied, looking up through her eyelashes to meet his eyes. She glanced at her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I know." He replied quietly.

As the car came to a stop near dawn, they filed one by one into the building after the men had cleared it. A large house that Beth could imagine was a bed and breakfast at some point in time, painted a ugly shade of pink in it's prime, but due to the weather and the lack of upkeep it had dwindled to a rusty coral color.

Beth said her goodnights to everyone, walking towards the end of the hall to the room that Michonne, Carl, Rick and Judith were staying in, planning to sleep on the floor. Daryl had seen her walk a few feet before calling her name softly as she passed his room that he had settled in, causing her to walk back and stand in front of him.

He thumbed the crossbow strap on his shoulder, touching her arm and nodding his head in the direction of the inside of the room.

"You wanna stay in here with me tonight?"

She smiled and nodded. "Just let me grab my bag."


	14. Not Made of Glass

**_Guys I'm really sorry this took way too long. But this was so hard for me to write._**

**_If ya don't like smut, I suggest you skip this chapter._****_ ;)_**

**_Love you guys._**

**_-Stephanie_**

* * *

She sat on the bed once she walked into the room, sighing loudly as she began pressing her back against the white rusted bed frame. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit nervous- Not that she hadn't been alone with Daryl before- but this time, it was different. She sat there anxiously, and waited for daryl to emerge from his position, currently looking out of the blinds to the side of the house, examining the ground and trying to search for walkers or any sort of danger, or at least that was her assumption.

But the reality of it was, Daryl was thinking the same exact thing that she was, looking out the window was just a distraction from being next to her. He couldn't wrap his mind around the way he acted most of the time for the life of him. Contradicting his words with his actions. He knew that was happening more and more lately as his standing with Beth was moving forward at a fast rate, it scared him to death if he were to be honest with himself.

She knew damn well, just as he did, that he wouldn't be the one to move from his position willingly.

"Daryl, c'mere." She said, lifting her focus from her notebook, raising one hand waving him towards her direction. She didn't know why he was standing there for such a long time, he invited her in and was all but ignoring her presence. She didn't take it personally, she knew how he was.

He still had one hand on one of the blinds, but he looked down at the sound of her voice, knowing he needed to head toward her regardless of the walkers and the ground that he had tried to distract his focus to. He invited the girl into his room for Christs sake, but was still avoiding being near her like she had some sort of disease.

He let his grasp on the blinds fall loose, shoving his hands into his pockets as he sat next to the girl on the bed, on top of the covers she was currently under. She eyed him carefully, watching the side of his face while he shifted somewhat uncomfortably under her scrutiny.

"You can get underneath the covers, I don't bite." She joked, focusing on the notebook now as she wrote diligently. He laughed slightly, still not making the effort to do as she said. In all honestly, the 'I don't bite' comment rose a growl in his throat that even he didn't know how he had managed to swallow down.

She sighed, standing up slowly and placing the notebook onto the nightstand. He watched her as she stood, the pale moonlight streaming through the blinds allowed some visibility. Not much, but just enough so that Daryl could see her through the darkness. She slowly unbuttoned the top button of her shorts, and Daryl felt his whole body stiffen.

She must have noticed, because she giggled slightly.

"Relax." She said, shaking her head at his body language. "These damn things are uncomfortable, it's hard to sleep with them on." He mumbled something under his breath, shrugging his vest off and placing it on the floor as she slid back underneath the covers, but not before he had gotten a glimpse of the bottom half of her ever so perfect body.

"Can I ask you somethin'?" She said, turning her body to her side so she could face him. He turned to face her also, sliding his body down to a more comfortable position, leaning his head into his hand propped up by his elbow.

"I s'pose" he said, giving into his curiosity as well as hers.

"What do you think of me?" She asked, her blue eyes beaming into his. He shifted again under her gaze.

"That's a pretty vague question, Greene." He said, almost mocking her in his usual condescending tone that she yet again chose to ignore, sitting up, and getting closer to him.

"I'm serious." She said, her blonde hair tumbling down her shoulders in such a breathtaking way, he wasn't exactly sure how to respond, as if he had become paralyzed by the sight of her.

Finally, when he gained the strength back to operate his body and mouth again, he sat up to come eye to eye with her, placing his fingertips gently on her forearm, again avoiding her gaze and tracing small circles onto it with his rough fingers, stark in contrast of her light and soft skin.

"I think so many things about you Beth, some I don't even know how to explain right now. y'know I'm no good with words." He said quietly, still not looking her in the eye. Eye contact meant he had to face that rejection he was all to familiar with.

Beth sensed that, feeling that same way about being rejected, being pushed away. All she wanted in that moment was him, and she didn't understand how he could be so blind to that.

She reached out, brushing the dark long pieces of hair that had fallen into his eyes out of the way, hoping he'd finally look at her. She wanted to see the look in his eyes, wanted some sort of confirmation that he wanted her and wanted her there just as much as she did him.

Soft fingertips reached underneath his chin, brushing the unshaven hair of his face. He had no choice but to look at her, and when he did, he knew he was lost.

Never in a million years had Daryl ever thought he'd feel this way about a girl-about a woman. Never did he think someone would be able to tear down the emotional barriers he had set so high to protect him from any kind of hurt, and subject him to the feeling of rejection again. But here Beth Greene was, all blue eyes and pink parted lips, blonde hair and perfection- accepting him for all that he was, and more importantly, everything that he wasn't.

He closed the gap between them, softly pressing his lips to hers, groaning inwardly at the contact that he had so desperately wanted even though he had been trying to push it out of his head. She caressed the side of his face, gently moving her lips against his as her hand floated to the hair on the nape of his neck, tugging slightly.

He ran his hands up and down her shoulders, his body aching as he touched the softness, finding himself wondering if all of her was indeed that soft. He leaned back, taking his hands into hers and pulling her gently against him. Her torso hovered above his, but her feet still on her own side of the bed as she decided to deepen the kiss, taking it a step further knowing that Daryl wouldn't, she pulled back slightly and caught her breath while he caught his.

"If your dad were here, he'd drag me out by my feet and feed me to a walker. Y'know that right?" He said, his forehead pressed to hers, lips barely touching as his lips tugged at a smile. She couldn't help but smile at him in that moment. He was finally relaxed somewhat, able to speak and look at her in the eyes. With the hand that wasn't supporting itself on Daryl's knee, she reached up and tucked a strand of his impossibly long hair behind his ear gently. she shook her head at his comment, pushing her own hair out of her eyes, pulling back just slightly so she could get a better look at his face.

"He loved you." She said softly, in a reassuring tone. "Not to mention, I can make my own decisions. I'm twenty- at least I think I am." She creased her forehead and looked down slightly at the last part, realizing she wasn't even sure what day or month or year it was anymore.

"I made plenty of dumb decisions when I was that young." He said, lifting her chin up to meet his eyes again. "You sure this is what you want?" He asked her. He heard himself say the words, but almost couldn't believe he was saying it. He was giving her one more chance to back out, one more chance to run away and never look back and let things go back to the way they were, the way that he felt was better for her. In his mind- Daryl Dixon was destructive, and a ticking time bomb, and it wouldn't take long for him to do or say something that would have her running for the hills.

That question hit home for her. She remembered the chain of events that got her to this point- that got them to this point. She never realized how much she had grown to care for him until she didn't have him there- until she didn't know where she was at or if he wasn't even alive. She knew that she would tear heaven and earth apart to find him again, and that he would have done the same. That alone, was all she needed to know.

"I'm sure." She replied, laying down on her side right beside him as he placed a kiss to her forehead, playing with her hair between his fingers.

He turned to her in that moment, his body facing her own. He placed his hand on her lower back and pressed her into him softly, catching her lips yet again and kissing her hungrily, running his fingers softly up and down her spine through her shirt. She shivered at the touch, instinctively pressing herself even closer to him. She had been kissed before - There was Jimmy, there was Zach, there was that one kid in high school that she had kissed during a spin the bottle game at a birthday party - but this was different.

She never felt the passion, the hunger, the need- at least not like this. This was a whole new experience. She felt every nerve ending in her body from her head all the way down to her toes firing off. Daryl held her as if he never wanted to let go, he kissed her as though he'd never get the chance to again, and that was something she was far from being used to.

When she pressed herself closer, Daryl groaned into her mouth, grabbing her hips and pushing her back onto the bed as he hovered on top of her, settling in between her legs. The sight of her sprawled out that way underneath him, her blonde hair splayed across the bedspread, her bottom lip in a vice between her teeth, only made him want her more than before, if that was even possible.

Her thoughts were hazy, clouded by the intense feelings running through her that she had never felt before. Her eyes fluttered closed as he slowly made his way from her mouth down to the hollow of her neck, gently nipping on her collarbone. Beth couldn't help the soft moan that fell off of her lips, arching her hips upwards towards his without even thinking.

As his lips moved around from her neck, to her earlobe and back to her lips, he slowly slid his hand underneath the lace trim on the bottom of that new teal tank top she was wearing, working his fingers slowly upwards, running his hands back and forth across her rib cage. Her heart pounded mercilessly in her chest, as did his.

He leaned his head back up, and her eyes never left him. She watched his every move, as he gently slid the strap off of her shoulder, kissing the bare skin. She let her head fall backwards, watching him kiss her that way made her ache in a way she had trouble describing. She wanted him closer, wanted him more now than ever.

She became brave in that instant, reaching her fingers to his flannel and unbuttoning the small pearl colored buttons of his flannel. He leaned up to give her access, watching her as she worked her fingers from the top button to the bottom button quickly. She reached to his chest, meeting his gaze as she ran her hands over to his shoulders, sliding the shirt off of his arms, and letting it drop to the floor. She held his gaze as she sat up, reaching the hem of her tank top, when he placed his hand on the side of her face to get her attention.

"We don't have to do this." He said, his voice raspy, his pupils black as night.

"I want to." She replied, the tone of her voice and the color of her eyes mirroring his exactly. He knew in that moment that she was feeling the same way he was, and the consent was enough to send Daryl over the edge, and then some.

He pushed her hands away gently, replacing them with his own as she layed herself back onto the bed. He eased her shirt upwards slowly, paying attention to every single dip and curve about her with his mouth. He didn't know if she had ever been touched like this- if touched at all. And even though he felt as though he didn't deserve to be the one to do it, if she chose him, he was going to make damn sure it was something special to her.

He eyed her carefully with every move that he made, looking for some sort of fear or doubt that would make him stop in his tracks. He didn't want to push her too far, and he didn't know what exactly would be too far.

when he pushed his hand up farther, slowly caressing the underside of one of her breasts, he felt her tense beneath him. He stopped, only for a moment until she nodded in approval, parting her lips slightly. He eased his hand even farther, cupping one beneath his rough hand, massaging it lightly as she breathed out shakily, pulling his elbow gently to get him to return his mouth to hers. She kissed him frantically, her blood humming through her veins, her insides aching slowly, her skin pleasantly burning everywhere he touched.

He took her lip between his teeth, rolling her nipple between his fingers, easing the shirt up until it wouldn't go any farther. He broke the kiss briefly, only to remove the fabric between her chest and his own. He leaned back onto his calf's, drinking in the sight of her. She couldn't have looked more perfect. She was more perfect than he had ever imagined. She looked nervous, not looking him in the eyes, and slightly covering herself with her arms. She never had anyone look at her that way, and she immediately became self conscious.

He brushed her arms back to her sides, leaning into her ear to tell her not to be ashamed, and that she was beautiful.

"You tell me if you wanna stop." He said, kissing along her jawline. "You don't owe me nothin'" Running his lips slowly, carefully, down to her neck, underneath her collarbone, until he finally reached her breast, taking it into his mouth, rolling the hardened surface between his tongue and teeth gently. Beth arched her back, unable to stifle the moan falling from her mouth as he tortured her with his touch, fire igniting between her legs in a way she had never felt before.

He reached one of his hands down, running his fingers gently against her through the thin fabric of her underwear. He felt her twitch underneath his fingers, she was responding to every single thing that he did making him fully aware of how sensitive she was. He looked up to her, trying to gauge her reaction to him touching her, and could have came right then. The obvious look of pleasure splayed across her face made his erection press painfully against his pants, aching to be inside of her.

He never broke his eye contact as he slowly pushed the fabric to one side, running his finger up and down her smooth entrance, impossibly turned on by the soft whimpers and noises she was making. He slowly delved one finger inside, and had to collect himself immediately.

Her body clamped around his finger so tightly, and he knew she wasn't climaxing- at least not yet anyway. She was impossibly tight, wet, hot. And he realized in that moment what he had tried not to- she was a Virgin.

The thought of him taking something like that from a girl- especially Beth, scared him. He knew there was no way around hurting her. The thing about it was, he had tried to convince himself that she had done it before, possibly with the boyfriend she had from the farm who's name he couldn't recall, or even Zach before he had died. But it was clear by her reactions, how she didn't know what to do with her hands, that this was new and uncharted territory.

He froze, causing her to lean up slightly and send him a confused look.

"What?" She said, her voice coming out husky, laced clearly with passion. He'd be lying if he said it didn't turn him on more.

"You ain't never done this before, have ya?" He said, unable to hide his own lust in his tone of voice.

She shook her head, looking at him with her huge bright blue hooded eyes. He let out an exasperated sigh, watching her look down- whether it was out of fear or shame or what, he didn't know- but he reached up, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at him.

"I ain't gonna do this- not if you ain't sure. And I mean one hundred percent sure."

"Daryl."

"Hmm?"

"Touch me." She finally said. "Please."

"Beth, I-" she cut him off, placing a finger to his lips.

"Don't."

And with that, he returned, moving his finger back to its position slowly, moving in and out of her with such gentleness and yet such conviction, it took her by surprise. Her hand clenched the old worn out quilt tightly as he pressed his thumb to the bundle of nerves at the top of her sex, jumping at the new sensation.

She chanced a glance down to him, and immediately felt her insides start to do something they'd never done before. He was staring at her as he moved, a look of what she could only make out as confidence as he continued to touch her- and in that moment she saw stars.

He knew what was happening, moving quicker as he felt her clench and throb around his fingers, wetness coating his fingers as he knelt his head down to use his mouth to help her reach her peak. Groaning into her as he tasted the sweetest thing he thought would ever grace his lips. A hot womanly musk.

There were Lights of varying colors flashing in her eyes as she screwed her eyes shut, panting heavily, unable to choke down the moan escaping her lips in the form of his name as her whole world pulsated with a pleasure she had never felt before at her climax.

When she finally opened her eyes, he was hovering above her. During the time she had been coming down from her high, he removed the rest of his clothes, sliding her soaked underwear from around her legs and dropping it to the floor.

This was it- and she knew it. She was going to do what she had only dreamed about for so long and she couldn't have felt more ready for it. It wasn't how she has pictured it, at least before the turn, but in that moment she couldn't have imagined it to be in a more perfect place, with a more perfect person.

The broken, scarred and emotionally unstable Daryl Dixon that she met on the farm seemed far away now, replaced with the most loving and caring version of him she never even knew existed. The fall of the prison, the loss of the people she loved was a painful thing- but without it, she wouldn't be here. She wouldn't have him.

He positioned himself at her entrance, pressing it against her but not inside as he focused to her one last time before crossing the line they'd never be able to come back from.

"I'm gon do my best not to hurt you baby, can't promise you it won't hurt." She smiled at the pet name, nodding in approval. She didn't trust anyone with this any more than she trusted him. She was ready, and she knew that for sure.

He pressed inside slowly, hissing as he sheathed himself completely inside of her. He watched her closely, seeing her wince with a small tear escaping her eye. He was careful not to move-at least not yet as he bent down and kissed her tenderly all the while wiping the tear away with his thumb. He didn't know exactly what it felt like to her, he'd only heard stories. But he continued to stay painfully still, waiting for her approval to keep moving.

Truth be told, it wasn't long, but to Daryl it felt like an eternity. It had bed long , way too long sense he had been inside of a woman, and that still didn't compare to what he was feeling right now.

She finally nodded, and he noticed the exact moment her face relaxed, taking it one step further and pulling out slowly before moving back inside of her heat.

He moved inside of her, in and out over and over again at a tortuously slow pace, trying his best to make this something good for her, gripping the sides of her hips as he pushed in and out, feeling everything as she shifted, arched her back, called out his name softly. But out of nowhere, she interrupted his thoughts.

"Daryl, I'm not made of glass." She said. He looked up at her, giving her a look because he didn't know what she meant.

"You can fuck me," She said breathlessly, "I'm not going to break in half."

He groaned, not even thinking twice about what she said and slamming into her roughly, picking her up and sitting her onto his lap as he guided her up and down on top of him. She had her hands on his knees, chest pushed out as she moved. He kissed her stomach, looking up to meet her eyes as he moved his fingers between them, watching her as she began to contract around him again, collapsing her head into his shoulder as she rode out her second orgasm, causing him to fall over that same edge as well. Together, this time.

He leaned her down, she was glad he was helping her because her whole entire body felt like it had gone limp and she had forgotten how to move on her own.

He layed her to his side, her head nestling in the crook of his shoulder, fingers intertwined as they caught their breath.

* * *

"I ain't no good at this kinda thing." He said after a brief silence.

"No good at what?" She asked, tilting her head to look up at him, he was looking down at her too.

"This," He said, gesturing the arm that wasn't underneath Beth's head at the two of them. At first she didn't get it, but she finally understood what he was saying.

"I think you're doing just fine." She said with a laugh, wiggling against him, and placing her hand across his chest, tracing small lines across his abdomen.

"Yeah, first time for ev'rythin' I guess." He mumbled, still fiddling with the ends of her hair.

She looked up at him like he had just grown horns. "Oh, don't give me that." She said incredulously, shoving him lightly with the hand that had been drawing on his chest. "You can't tell me you never had a girlfriend or anything."

"Nah, I didn't." He replied, shrugging his shoulders a bit, at least as much as he could with her leaning on one of his shoulders.

"Come on!" she said, her voice squeaking a little bit.

"I ain't kiddin'!" He said back, mocking her tone playfully.

"Well you've clearly done that before." She pointed out, her insides and her lips still tingled from the contact of him.

"_That_ and havin' a girlfriend are two different things, Beth." He said, his tone changing a little bit. She knew when to back off from her questions when it came to Daryl, he could be edgy sometimes, she knew that all too well.

She layed there for a while, her mind at ease as the cool breeze of nighttime flowed through the window that Daryl had cracked for some circulation through the room. When she looked to Daryl and saw his eyes were shut, she had assumed that he was sleeping. That was until he kept shifting around slightly, cracking his eyes a little and scanning the room, almost like he was anxious.

"Can I ask you somethin'?" Beth said, looking up at his closed eyes. He opened one slightly and looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you always ask this many questions?" He replied. She blinked a few times at him.

He made some sort of noise, shifting his back around on the bed a little bit. He knew by the unwavering look in her eyes that she had just ignored his retorted question all together, waiting on a response to her own.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said, giving in finally.

"Do you think that guy actually knows? You know, Eugene." She said, her voice somewhat muffled as she spoke into his the skin of his chest. He could hear the doubtfulness in her voice.

"Hard ta say." He said, crooking an arm underneath his head. "Do you?"

"It just doesn't make any sense, you know? He said he was like a middle school science teacher." Daryl just shrugged at her response, closing his eyes.

"Alright, Miss twenty questions, go to sleep." He said, coming out more of a demand rather than a request. "Got a long day tomorrow."

She smiled against him, she knew how to get on his nerves when she wanted to. She had too much fun with it, if she were to be honest with herself.

"Hey Daryl?" He let out an exasperated sigh.

"yes?" He replied. Even though she wasn't looking at him, she knew he was rolling his eyes and getting annoyed.

"Goodnight." She said, readjusting her head into him comfortably.

"Goodnight, Beth."

* * *

"Alright! Let's go, let's go!" A voice chimed through the door, waking Beth up. She shifted during the night, and had her back pressed against Daryl's front. He was under the covers now, his warmth radiating through her body.

She shifted her head to look over her shoulder at him, he was still sleeping and she hated the thought of waking him up. Especially because she really wished she could just stay in that position for the rest of the day. She carefully turned her body underneath his arms, facing him. She took the opportunity of him sleeping to admire his features. She never got to do so before.

She heard the faint talking of everyone outside of the door, gathering their things and talking amongst themselves. She knew it wouldn't be long before people came looking for them, but she didn't care too much in that moment, her mind was occupied.

She brushed his hair out from his eyelids, letting her hand fall down back to her side. She listened to his breathing, watching his chest rise and fall slowly. One of his eyes fluttered open as she had been watching his chest, she didn't notice him wake up at all. He knew what she was doing, letting his eyes fall shut again. She lifted her hand again, placing it on his cheek lightly, feeling the stubble underneath her fingers.

"You always touch people when you sleep?" He finally said, he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep a straight face. He had felt her touching his face, and any sort of contact from her made him on edge. Not reacting to her was a difficult thing for him to do.

Her face turned red, ducking her head down once he had spoken. She'd been caught red handed, and she knew it. She felt embarrassed, bringing one hand to her cheek.

"Ahm kiddin'" He finally said laughing a little bit and sitting up to face her. Brushing her hair out of her eyes and behind her ear.

"You ok?" He said, tilting his head to look her in the eyes.

"I'm perfect." She said smiling. "Are you ok?"

"Why do I feel like we have this conversation all the time?" He said, earning a laugh as she ran her fingers over his arm.

"Yeah, I'm better than ok." he finally said. She looked up to him, kissing him gently upon his lips.


	15. Lies

Daryl strung Beth's bag over his shoulder along with his crossbow. as he had walked out of the room he had taken it upon himself to carry her things. Why he did it- he wasn't exactly sure. But he did anyway.

His head at the moment was still trying to wrap its mind around the events from the night before, as perfect as they were in his mind. He was more than ready to wake up and jt all be a dream.

But it wasn't like he could forget what happened, even if he wanted to. The feeling of her soft skin underneath his fingertips, the sensual way she pressed her lips to his own, the look on her face when she climaxed, collapsing over him and calling out his name- it was better than he could have imagined- but waking up to the cold floor of a train car at terminus wouldn't have surprised him. He felt it all was too good to be true.

Getting out of bed was the hardest part, kissing Beth's head as he pulled back on his discarded clothes from the floor, still smelling her on his skin, still feeling her touch him even though she wasn't. It was almost surreal.

He walked out the door, not before kissing her hair gently knowing he'd see her outside soon, as he walked down the hallway and outside to where everyone was congregating.

"Where we at?" He asked rick, watching him as rick stared at the map splayed across the hood of one of the squad cars, his hands on either side of it.

"Not sure, not outta South Carolina yet." He replied, running a hand through his greasy hair. Daryl sighed. He knew it's be a bit before they actually made it all the way to D.C.

"Can I ask you," daryl started, not waiting for rick to answer him. "Do you know if he-Eugene- if he knows? For sure?"

Rick shook his head, unsure of how to answer. "I'm- I don't know." He answered honestly.

"Then why? Why go there if we don't even hava reason to"

"What else do you suppose we do, then?" He inquired. Rick didn't have very many other options other than to follow Abrahams lead. He had confidence in Abraham now, but wether he believed Eugene and what he had claimed to have known was an entirely different story.

"I dunno" daryl said shrugging it off, leaning his back against the train car away from rick.

"I gotta talk to you about something, " Rick said out of nowhere, getting daryl to shift to face him with an eyebrow raised and a slight murmur getting him to continue.

"You-You and beth.." He trailed off, not knowing how to approach the situation. He had seen the looks, the clear affection they had for each other- also noticed that she didn't stay in the room with him, michonne and Carl, but there was no way he could be sure, and if he was right in his assumptions, he wasn't sure how he felt about it. Besides that, he woke them up at the furniture store with Beth curled around him, watched her lace her fingers into his when she was singing to the group

At first when Daryl was distraught about losing Beth, He didn't think he thought about her- at least not in that way. But it was become more and more clear as time went on that he was wrong in his initial write off of the situation.

Daryl ruffled his hair a little bit, pulling the pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket and lighting it with a match. He watched as beth strode down the stairs and over to michonne, engaging in some sort of conversation with her.

"What about 'er?

"Not just her," rick replied, "you _and_ her." Daryl felt his throat go dry. He didn't know what to say about it, expecting a smack across the face or a lecture he had no interest in having, especially with rick. He didn't think it was anybody's buisness anyways. He shrugged his shoulders in response, unsure of what to say.

"Daryl, I'm not one to judge but-"

"So don't." He interrupted quickly.

Rick leaned away from his position , standing in front of daryl trying to get him to look at him, but he wasn't surprised when he didn't.

"All I'm sayin' is Daryl- She's a kid." Daryl shook his head, he was growing sick and tired of everyone - as she put it last night - treating her like she was made of glass. He took another drag, mentally trying his best to keep his temper down. Last thing he needed to do was make another public outburst.

"You didn't seem to think that when you had 'er practically raise your kid when we as at the prison." He muttered, avoiding eye contact.

"What does that have to do with it?" Rick replied, a hint of anger in his voice made Daryl raise an eyebrow. Rick was getting defensive.

"So she's old enough to do everything else, but not old enough to make her own decisions?" Daryl replied, dropping the cigarette and stomping the red on the end with his boot to put it out.

"That's not what I'm saying-"

"Then what are you saying?" He said, getting defensive himself and cutting Rick off.

"I'm saying-"

"You think I don't know how young she is? And how old I am? Is that what you're gettin' at?" He cut him off again, feeling the heat coming off of his face. "You think that didn't cross my mind?"

"It's irresponsible, Daryl. All it's gonna take is You to walk away from that girl- and it'll destroy her. Need I remind you that girl sliced her wrists open because she didn't want to live anymore? That wasn't that long ago."

Daryl merely shook his head, cringing on the inside at the memory of that situation. He remembered thinking about it when he was at the farm, thinking she was the stupidest girl he'd ever known- it reminded him of andrea- and that bitch was a whole new type of crazy. He threw it in her face when they had fought at the moonshine still too, looking back on it now, he felt like a dick. The Girl had some serious problems, and he thought of her as weak and stupid.

"You ain't her daddy, Rick. I don't think I even asked for your approval now that'm thinkin' 'bout it." He muttered, grabbing his crossbow off the ground and stringing it across his shoulder along with Beth's bag.

"What do you think Hershel would say about this? Ever think of that?" He said, leaning his head in Daryl's direction. The usual stern look on his face that he displayed when he felt strongly about something. Too bad Daryl didn't seem to care.

Are ya Hershel?" He said, getting closer to rick. He looked him up and down, seeing Rick's face falter slightly. "Yeah. I didn't think so." He said, turning on his heels and walking back towards the squad car.

* * *

"What was that all about?" Michonne asked Rick as they pulled onto the road, checking the rearview mirror to make sure everyone else was following as they kept behind Abraham's lead.

"All what about?" He replied, one hand on the steering wheel, the other fiddling with the temperature gage. Michonne rolled her eyes.

"I got eyes and ears like a hawk, Grimes. Don't test me." She said. Carl snorted in amusment from the backseat, Michonne smiled over her shoulder at him quickly.

"Don't tell me you're harrassing the redneck about Beth." She said knowingly, shaking her head a little bit at the idea of it and staring out the window.

"Don't tell me you agree with what's going on?" He said to her in a slight whisper, looking at her with concern. The statement came out as more of a question. He tried to keep the conversation isolated to the two, but he couldn't help the small confines of the car. Carl would hear the conversation wether Rick wanted him to, or not.

"I'm just looking out for the girl. She doesn't have her Dad to do that for her anymore. Or Maggie for that matter." He said, looking down. The death's of Hershel and Maggie - Leaving only one Greene family member left- was not only vividly clear in his mind, but it still hurt to think about, let alone mention.

"Did it cross your mind that maybe she doesn't need anyone to look out for her anymore? And besides that, I don't get why you think it'd be a bad thing for her anyway."

Rick had an astounded look on his face, looking at Michonne when she finished.

"I think it's a bad idea- First of all, Beth's too young. And Daryl- He's as old as me, Michonne."

"Beth's at least twenty at this point. And sense when does any of that matter anymore? It's not like how it used to be. In a perfect world she'd be in college right now."

"She's been through a lot," Rick countered, "I know you weren't there to witness it, but it wasn't that long ago that she tried to commit suicide- right after she watched Andrea blow her Mom's brains out when she was a walker and went into some kind of shock. Last thing she needs is a broken heart- Might lose her for real this time."

"Rick, listen to yourself." She said, shifting a little bit in the leather seat. "That has absolutely nothing to do with Daryl and Beth together."

Rick grunted out of frustration, he didn't expect to be alone on this. He figured everyone else would be on the same page with him about it.

It wasn't that he thought low of Daryl- because honestly, the two of them became more like brothers over the time that they had been together more than anything. Daryl never was an emotionally stable person from what Rick had seen, there wasn't much of a grace period between the times when he was calm and collected and the times that he would fly off the handle. Daryl didn't seem like the type that even knew how relationships worked.

"I highly doubt that he'd do anything that would jeapordize her ever again, you saw how he was when she was gone. Guy was litterally dreaming about her and saying her name when he was sleeping." She said, remembering watching him from across the train car when Maggie had approached him for saying her sisters name in his sleep.

Rick didn't answer, staring straight forward and gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"She's gonna have to learn how to deal with him, and if this is what she really wants then I don't think any of us really have a say in it." Michonne finally said, letting out a sigh and dropping it.

* * *

- one week later -

They had moved through the southern states as quickly as possible, running out of gas and exchanging the vehicles out as best they could. The previous night where they had made camp at a deserted office building, Rick and Abraham had spoke breifly to everyone about their distance, they already were in the vicinity of Washington, it was clear that it was getting colder the more north they had advanced.

Beth had borrowed a pair of black cargo pants from Rosita, and was extatic that she was pretty much the same size. She had managed to locate some other clothing that would fit her, some that would fit Judith, some odds and ends for the others as well at one of the stops on the way.

Daryl became more at ease about what everyone reffered it to as 'public affection' when it came to Beth. He knew that she was being patient with him - more than he deserved if anyone were to have asked- and he was thankful for that.

It also came as a relief to him when not many people seemed to feel the need to but into their buisness. He knew Rick was still apprehensive about it, but he didn't say anything about it after he had his conversation with Michonne the day they had gotten into the argument. He was thankful for that too.

And now here they were again, sitting side by side. this time in a old blue pick up truck with the windows down.

"I'm not playing this game." Daryl grunted, rolling his eyes at Beth in the passenger seat. "Nope. No way in hell."

"Come on! There's nothing else to do while we drive." Beth whined, holding three fingers up. "It'll be fun this time, I promise."

"If I remember correctly, and I do-the last time we played it I ended up almost choking you with my arm and my crossbow. I manhandled you like you were a damn ragdoll."

"Yeah, well, it's not like we're drinking-it'll be different. Come on, please?" She said, putting on her best pout face she could muster up and batted her eyelashes at him a few times.

Daryl laughed a little bit before exageratting his raising of his fingers as well. He couldn't say no to that face if he wanted to.

"I've never.. I've never smoked a cigarette." Beth said with a sly grin on her face. Daryl shook his head in response.

"You play dirty, Greene. Not sure how I feel about that." He said with a smirk, lowering one of his fingers.

"I ain't ever seduced an older man before." He said, her face turning red. He knew he'd get her on that one, pulling out the big guns shamlessly. Beth frowned in response, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Okay, number one, I didn't seduce you." She said with a huff.

"The hell you didn't." He said chuckling a little bit.

"Hardly." She lowered one of her fingers regrettably.

"I've never...Daryl! Daryl, look!" Daryl had been watching Beth without really paying attention to the road, so he didn't notice like she did when the cars were pulling over to the side of the road quickly, Rick jumping out of the car and running towards the opposite side of abraham's SUV.

Daryl slammed the truck into park and jumped out of it, hustling his way over to the cars to see what was going on. Beth was hustling after him, picking her feet up as quickly as she could to keep up with him. He rounded the corner of the car just in time to see Abraham yanking Euegene out of the car and hit him square in the jaw.

"You son of a bitch!" Abraham roared loudly, shaking off Rick and Daryl and Bob as they tried to peel him away from Eugene who was cowering over, doing his best to protect himself.

He gripped Eugene by the collar of his shirt with both hands, his knuckles turning white in the process as he screamed into the mans face.

"You're dead! You hear me? You're fucking dead!" Daryl and Tyresse had one of Abraham's arms while Bob and Rick pulled him back with force with the other arm. Michonne had already dislodged her sword and pointed it at his face, while Rick threatened him to stay in place.

Rosita was mumbling incoherent slurs in spanish, yelling at Eugene at the top of her lungs, while pacing around in circles. Tara did her best to get Rosita to calm down, the last thing they needed was to attract any unwanted attention by walkers, or even worse, other people.

Beth knelt down to Eugene's side, examining his busted lip, along with Carol. Carol pulled out a small rag from her back pocket and started blotting at it gently.

"It's not gonna need stitches, but we're going to need to clean it out." Carol said quietly, looking around to Daryl and the others for some sort of explanation as to what was happening.

"What in the HELL is going on?!" Rick said loudly, aiming one of his guns at him that he had lifted from the Sheriff's office.

"I'll tell you what's going on! He yelled, making Rick take a step backwards. "This peice of fucking garbage! Lying sack of shit!" He yelled, trying to push Rick, Michonne, and Tyresse out of his way only to be stopped by the blade of Michonne's katana.

"Stay. Back!" Rick yelled, moving the gun closer to Abraham's face. He backed up a couple feet, balling his hands into fists by his side. He turned around quickly, pointing over Rick's shoulder at Eugene's figure still on the ground, surrounded by Carol and Beth.

"He's a liar - He doesn't know a GOD DAMN THING!" He said, averting his eyes to meet Ricks. Abraham's anger was startling, his face had turned a beet red color, and he broke out into a sweat, soaking his green tank top.

"Doesn't know what?" Daryl growled, crossbow loaded and aimed up at him as well, a few feet away. He cast a glance in Beth's direction, who was already looking at him with concern. They had spoke about their doubts when it came to Eugene and what he really knew- and in that moment Beth as well as Daryl feared the same thing. That they were right.

"I stuck my neck out for you! Protected you! Lost my men for you! For what? For a fucking bullshit lie from a middle school sciene teacher that doesn't know Jack shit!" He exclaimed, furiously kicking the ground with his boot. Rick lowered his weapon, walked over to Eugene and dragged him up to his feet. The man had been crying, looking at Rick with fear in his eyes for what was going to happen next.

"I need you to listen to what I'm going to say very carefully, and chose your answer very wisely because you have one chance here, you got me?" He said, pushing him up against the side of the SUV. Eugene nodded in response, his eyes filling with tears.

"Do you know what caused the outbreak?" He said, almost growling at the man with his forearm pressed tightly against his neck.

Eugene swallowed hard as best as he could with the pressure against his throat, looking at everyone around him seeing the angry looks he was being shot.

Rick's patience was wearing thin by his lack of response, he pressed his arm tighter against his throat, Eugene winced at the contact.

"Answer me dammit! I asked you a question!" He demanded. Eugene finally shook his head no, and Rick let go of him with frustration, rubbing his hand over his face furiously. Just as Rick was about to say something else, he stopped dead in his tracks. Swearing at everyone's disregard for the noise level because walking out of the trees was not one, not two, but at least 25 walkers from what he could tell.

"Walkers!" Rick yelled.

Carl passed Judith on over to Carol as soon as he saw the group of walkers, and carol didn't hesitate to run for the protection of the car she was in with Tyreese, she was more than capable of fighting, but taking care of Judith was her main concern. Daryl started walking toward the group, but didn't make a shot before he grabbed Beth by her arm, getting her attention. "Go to the truck, now." He growled, raising his bow up to his eyeline and shooting it at the closest one.

Beth at that point couldn't help but be angry that she was deliberatly being told not to help, and to get to safety. Even though she knew Daryl's mind was just trying to protect her from the danger, but she knew she could help. She'd done it before when it was just the two of them.

The rest of the group walked towards the herd with the exception of Eugene who still was visibly shaken from the encounter, taking them out one by one.

Daryl ran out of arrows at one point, dropping his crossbow to the ground and unsheathing his knife from his clip. He kicked the first walker out of his way, before driving the knife into the skull of another. He whipped around, seeing Sasha struggling to get one off of her that was pinning her to the ground, she was yelling for Bob, but he was occupied. He shuffled over and leaned down to take that one out as well.

He looked up and stopped for a moment, feeling his anger peak as Beth emerged from behind Rick, all but tackling one of the walkers to the ground, pressing the knife into it's eye socket with force. He specifically told her to go to the truck so she'd not risk being hurt, but she clearly didn't listen. He got angry, not seeing anything around him anymore as he started to walk towards her, only to be caught off guard and pushed to the ground by one himself.

This one was strong- not weak like most of the one's that they had been encountering lately. Daryl silently was thankful for the cold weather and the fact that he was wearing a leather jacket once the walker dug it's fingernails into the fabric and started pulling, jaws snapping at him as it had him pinned to the ground, frantically trying to keep it away from him as he reached around for his knife that he had dropped accidentally during the scuffle.

The jaws got closer, within inches from his face as he tried to pull away, flip it over away from him, but he didn't seem to have the strength to do it. And then suddenly, the walker went limp, collapsing on him abrubtly. Daryl took the opportunity to shove it off of him and stand up, only to see beth yank her knife out from it's skull. Her hair was matted with black blood at the front, little dots that covered her face and a smear over her eyebrow.

"Oh my god, daryl, please tell me you're okay." She said, her chest heaving as her hands were on her knees trying to catch her breath.

"I told you to go to the truck" He growled, unable to help the angry tone he had as he spoke, scanning the area, realizing that the threat had been eliminated, at least for now.

"Well, good thing I didn't listen." She snapped, looking at the rotting body next to them.

"I had it!" He snapped back, taking the knife out of her hand and shoving it back into its clasp roughly against her belt. She felt her own ears getting hot, shoving his hands away from her. She hated nothing as much as she hated when he acted this way. Oh hell no, she thought.

"It had you pinned to the ground, Daryl. Stop being a jackass." She said back to him, turning away to walk back to the truck. He shook his head, grabbing her arm and twisting her back to face him.

"When I ask you to do something, you do it. No fucking questions!" He said releasing his grasp on her arm as he walked to pick up his knife and crossbow, and go back to the cars and figure out what they were going to do.

"Now what?" Daryl asked Rick as he approached. Rick shook his head and placed his gun in his belt holster, wrapping the map up and putting it back into his bag.

"We find somewhere to stay tonight, figure out this fucking mess later." He said waving his hand in the air. Daryl already knew by the way rick's tone came out that The 'fucking mess' clearly was a reference to the new information that came to light about Eugene.

"I'll follow you." Daryl said, walking back to the truck where Beth was already sitting in the passenger seat, her legs tucked into her chest as she looked out the window. He was angry, and he knew for a fact that she was too. He jumped into the truck and slammed the door shut, waiting on Rick to pull out into the road.


	16. Admittance

Beth sat with her knees still tucked to her chest with her arms wrapping around them tightly. She was still pissed off, and her auora of anger was all but permeating the air inside the single cab truck and it was making Daryl uncomfortable. The windows were up at this point because as the sun started to get lower in the sky, the heat removed made it colder outside, especially with the breeze.

Her mind couldn't stop reverting itself back to replay the scene of their argument. It was stupid to dwell on it, sure, but that didn't mean it still didn't piss her off the more she thought about it. She felt small when he yelled at her in that way, feeling the same way she felt when she was about seven years old getting reprimanded for drawing on her wall in permanent marker. She could almost see her father's face, not as hard as the people in the group probably remembered it- but her father nonetheless. His hair short, his face stern.

__

* * *

_"Bethy, markers are for drawing on paper, like this. Don't let me catch you doing this again, young lady."_

__

* * *

She felt tears prick at her eyes at the memory. Wishing she could hear that voice in person, at least one last time.

Although she had different clothing now that was signifigantly warmer, courtesy of Rosita, she couldn't help but still feel cold. When daryl turned to look in her direction briefly, he noticed she was shivering, small bumps covering her arms from the cold. He offered his jacket to her because he knew he could handle being cold, only if it meant that she was warm, but when he glanced in her direction and saw the anger still evident in her eyes from their confrontation earlier, he looked away quickly and returned his gaze to the road.

There was a small part of her telling her to relax, and that she was probably just overrreacting. But at the same time, she knew that she wasn't. She was tired of being just the babysitter. Just Maggie's little sister. Just Hershel's youngest daughter. She couldn't help but be offended that she was being reverted back to being treated like that, especially by Daryl after everything that had happened.

She sighed, leaning her head against the cold glass of the window just as the cars turned down a road and into a parking lot.

The parking lot was littered with cars and various contrusction equiptment, a large tan building that looked like a warehouse of some sort with a small office building towards the end. She also noticed that there was a gate, that would allow some sort of protection from the outside. It wasn't much, but it was better than just a string of cans and metal to alert them of danger.

Thank god for small favors, she thought.

She hopped out of the car quickly before Daryl completely even stopped the car, watching Abraham take the end of his assault rifle and bashing the head of a walker to the ground. She walked up to Michonne quietly, who stood watching Abraham as well with her katana dislodged and in her hands.

"What is this place?" Beth asked, scanning the area around her and watching Rick and glenn close the gate of the parking lot.

"Not sure," She replied, glancing at Beth breifly before looking over the area herself. "Some sort of warehouse from what I can tell. Probably an auto repair place judging by all the cars out here." Michonne touched one of the lincoln town cars beside her, brushing off some of the dust from the hood, wiping her hand on her pants to get the rest of the residue off of her fingers.

"You think it's safe?" She said warily. They had been lucky enough to mostly find buildings that they could hold up in, the furniture store and the other places they had stayed in were fresh in her mind. She didn't know how to feel about staying out in the open again.

"well hopefully we can get the building open, maybe we can siphon some gas out of what's left here." She said, turning around and looking at the flimsy building behind her. "We can Stay in there, it's better than being completely out in the open." She sighed. "Then again, what's really safe anymore, Greene." She finished finally, walking back towards the rest of the group who were standing by the cars.

"Glenn," Rick said warily, touching his shoulder. "You alright taking first watch?" He asked him, not sure of what his response would be.

"Yeah, I got it." he replied quietly, wrapping his hand around the strap of the gun he had hoisted onto his shoulder.

"Me too, I'll take watch with him." Beth replied, earning a glance from everyone. Rick looked to Daryl who had a scowl plastered across his face before shrugging his shoulders.

"Alright you two first, we'll figure out what were gonna do from then."

Everyone split up, making their way around the fenced in lot trying to make sure that there was no other danger in sight. Carl and Bob walked to the office building, trying to pick the lock and get the door open without having to break the glass and attract any unwanted attention. Michonne took her katana, shoving it through a hole in the fence at the few walkers that were on the other end of it near the tree line, eliminating them one by one.

"I'm Thinkin' we should have another watch group at the back," Abraham said to Rick as he lifted the bay of the warehouse slowly, listening for any indication of walkers or other people inside. "The lot's too big for there only to be a watch at the front. Besides, no offense but, I don't feel to save putting my life in the hands of Barbie and Jackie Chan over there." Rick couldn't help but snort out a laugh at the way he reffered to Beth and Glenn.

"You offerin to watch the other end?" Rick asked, watching Michonne drive her Katana into the skull of another walker.

"Yeah, I got Rosita. Just keep that fuckin' snake in the grass away from me." He said, roughly pointing his finger in the direction of Eugene. He walked away, grabbing rosita's hand and spitting at Eugene's feet. He tried to act like it didn't phase him, but by the look on his face it was clear he continued to fear for whatever would happen to him, especailly because his protector had now become his worst enemy.

Rick motioned for everyone else to enter the warehouse, which had been stripped of almost everything besides a few tools and some odds and ends. This would have to do for the night, it wasn't like they had many options while the sun began to set.

* * *

Daryl never went inside, not while Beth was out in the open at least. When she noticed that he was outside watching her, she had scowled at him a few times from the distance when she caught his gaze a few times. It was pissing her off even more and furthering her thought process that everyone thought that she couldn't handle herself.

"apologizing always works you know." Carl said, popping out from the warehouse after Rick had fallen asleep, knowing Daryl was sitting outside of it, watching Beth. He sat down slowly, eating a few peanuts out of a canister and offering them to Daryl, to which he declined.

"Nothin' to apologize for." He muttered, feeling a little pissed off that he was getting relationship advice from a...15 year old? 16? Shit. he thought.

Carl sighed. He knew how much Daryl really cared about Beth, and knew for a fact his reasoning was the same as his fathers. Rick always gave him a hard time about staying safe and it made him feel the same way Beth was feeling, he could tell by the look on her face.

"I liked her before, you know." He said. Daryl sent him a look, before cracking a slight smirk across his face as he continued to clean off his crossbow.

"Is that right?" He said, laughing a little bit at Carl when his face started to go pink in the dark.

"It was harmless, just a crush." He said, caught almost regretting what he was saying, not wanting to get on Daryl's bad side. "Just thought she was cute, you know."

Daryl sighed, glancing to his girl over by the fence who had somehow managed to get Glenn to speak, and from this distance, he thought he even heard Glenn laughing and saw him smiling a little bit. She had her way with people, that was for sure. He even had to rub a hand over his face because as he looked at the scene himself from afar, he was smiling himself.

"Yeah, she's cute alright." He said. He meant it to come out as a compliment, but Carl couldn't help but hear the twinge of sadness in his voice. Silence fell between them for a moment.

"Just can't lose her." He said, breaking the silence. "Not again, not after last time." he set his crossbow to the side, leaning his head against the wall of the outside of the warehouse. Carl followed his movements, relaxing back against the wall too.

* * *

"He didn't mean it, you know. Yelling at you like that." Glenn said. Beth looked up at him suprised by the sound of his voice. She followed his eyes as he scanned the area outside of the gate. "He just doesn't want anything to happen to you."

"I know." Beth replied quietly, suprised that Glenn was even speaking again. It was the first time she'd heard him talk sense the whole incident with Daryl in the car. "I'm not a child, Glenn. He of all people should know that by now. I can handle myself."

Glenn rubbed his chin, absentmindedly messing with the small coarse hairs that he desperately wish he could shave off.

"Remember the day we went on that run to the store, and we lost Zach?" Glenn asked her, looking into her eyes for the first time in a while, it felt like to Beth.

Of course she remembered that day.

"Yes."

"That day, Maggie was supposed to go, I told her I didn't want her to."

"And she didn't go?" Beth asked. Glenn shook his head in response.

"Why though?" She asked.

"Because I didn't want her to die?" He said, trying to get Beth to understand. "I didn't want her to get hurt. Me going on that run, that was besides the point. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if-" He trailed off, his voice cracking, realizing in that moment exactly what he had been saying. Maggie was gone now.

"I miss her." Beth said bravely. "When I was out on the road with Daryl..I-I was starting to think that I'd never see her again."

"I miss her too." He said, almost inaudibly. She was shocked when he reached over pulling her into a hug, speaking to her with his head over her shoulder.

"You never know Beth, don't stay mad at him forever- it isn't worth it." She felt a tear escape her eye, lifting one hand from around Glenn as he held onto her and wiping it away quickly. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Daryl, especially the way Glenn had lost Maggie. Right in front of his eyes. It was almost too much.

* * *

"I remember being at the farm," He began, shaking some of the hair out of his eyes. Daryl looked to him out of the corner of his eye, realizing just in that moment just how much Carl had grown sense then.

"It was always 'Stay in the house, Carl' or 'Don't move out of my sight' or 'Stay back, Carl'." he said, letting out a sigh. "Can't tell ya how much that shit annoyed me." He said.

"Watch your mouth, kid." Daryl said, not breaking his eyes from watching Beth braid her hair over her shoulder.

"I'm serious." He said, ignoring his scold and looking at Daryl in the eyes. "It made me so angry when nobody thought I could take care of myself. Made me feel like a burden. Made me mad, even when I proved myself."

Daryl pondered that for a moment, knowing what that meant even though he had never experienced it first hand. He had to give it to her, the girl made it all the way from the funeral parlor almost to terminus almost unscathed. That alone was impressive.

But he knew if anything ever happened to her again, he'd never forgive himself. He'd rather her be pissed off and angry rather than dead or missing. If she wanted to ignore him, he'd live with that. He was broken from his thoughts by the soft wailing of Judith echoing inside. Rick came out of the warehouse quietly, gently rocking Judith against him and trying to calm her down.

"Daryl, you mind holding Judith? Or getting Beth maybe? Everyone's sleeping and I can't get her to relax." Rick looked exhausted, and even if he wanted to, Daryl never could never say no or hesitate when it came to the child.

"C'mon, give 'er here." Daryl said, still sitting down and outstretching his arms to Rick. He cradled her close to his chest, rocking gently, and cooing in her ear, slowly seeing her relax in his arms.

"How're you doing, sweetheart?" He whispered to her, feeling her soft, warm breath blowing on his neck as her cries died down, her chin resting on his shoulder as he rubbed her back gently. "I missed ya, little ass kicker." He said. He looked over to see Carl had retreated back inside of the warehouse, leaving Daryl outside by himself with the baby. He was so wrapped up in her that he didn't even notice him stand up and leave.

"You have a way with her, you know." Beth said, breaking him from his thoughts.

"Yeah, she's a sweet little thing." He replied quietly.

Beth fiddled with the frayed end of her braid, sitting down next to him and exhaling a loud sigh. She waited for Glenn to walk inside sending him a small smile, and for Bob and Sasha to assume their previous positions on watch before she lowered her head onto Daryl's other shoulder, the one that didn't have Judith.

Daryl and Beth sat in silence for a moment, neither sure of what to say.

"I don't like it when you yell at me." She finally said quietly, sniffling a little bit.

"I don't like it when you don't listen to me." He replied. "Ya alright? Sound like ya been cryin'"

"I'm okay. Just thinkin' 'bout Maggie s'all." She said finally. Daryl thought for a moment.

"He seems to be doin' better." He noted.

"Yeah, just needs time, that's all." She replied.

He knew what she meant, thinking a the while about what he would do if he were to have lost best the same way that Glenn lost Maggie. He pushed that thought out of his mind quickly- not wanting to think about it. He knew he cared for beth - wether he was ready to say he loved her to himself or to her was a completely different story.

"Hey daryl?" She said, breaking his thoughts.

"Hmm?" He rumbled in a low voice

"I love you."


End file.
